Retracing evolution of red fluorescence in GFP-like proteins from Faviina corals.

ABSTRACT: Proteins of the green fluorescent protein family represent a convenient experimental model to study evolution of novelty at the molecular level. Here, we focus on the origin of Kaede-like red fluorescent proteins characteristic of the corals of the Faviina suborder. We demonstrate, using an original approach involving resurrection and analysis of the library of possible evolutionary intermediates, that it takes on the order of 12 mutations, some of which strongly interact epistatically, to fully recapitulate the evolution of a red fluorescent phenotype from the ancestral green. Five of the identified mutations would not have been found without the help of ancestral reconstruction, because the corresponding site states are shared between extant red and green proteins due to their recent des

SUBMITTER: Field SF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2877551 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature