Lateral Gene Transfer Acts As an Evolutionary Shortcut to Efficient C4 Biochemistry.

ABSTRACT: The adaptation of proteins for novel functions often requires changes in their kinetics via amino acid replacement. This process can require multiple mutations, and therefore extended periods of selection. The transfer of genes among distinct species might speed up the process, by providing proteins already adapted for the novel function. However, this hypothesis remains untested in multicellular eukaryotes. The grass Alloteropsis is an ideal system to test this hypothesis due to its diversity of genes encoding phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase, an enzyme that catalyzes one of the key reactions in the C4 pathway. Different accessions of Alloteropsis either use native isoforms relatively recently co-opted from other functions or isoforms that were laterally acquired from distantly related spe

SUBMITTER: Phansopa C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7751175 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature