Resurrecting an Ancient Enzyme to Address Gene Duplication

Resurrecting an Ancient Enzyme to Address Gene Duplication

The molecular biological revolution of the past several decades has put into the hands of researchers a set of powerful tools for understanding life and its evolution. In this issue of PLOS Biology, Christopher Brown, Karin Voordeckers, Steven Maere, and Kevin Verstrepen put those tools to work to recreate long-vanished ancestral enzymes in vitro, testing their biochemical activity against exis...

Resurrecting ancestral genes in bacteria to interpret ancient biosignatures

Two datasets, the geologic record and the genetic content of extant organisms, provide complementary insights into the history of how key molecular components have shaped or driven global environmental and macroevolutionary trends. Changes in global physico-chemical modes over time are thought to be a consistent feature of this relationship between Earth and life, as life is thought to have bee...

Resurrecting the ancestral steroid receptor: ancient origin of estrogen signaling.

Receptors for sex and adrenal steroid hormones are absent from fully sequenced invertebrate genomes and have not been recovered from other invertebrates. Here we report the isolation of an estrogen receptor ortholog from the mollusk Aplysia californica and the reconstruction, synthesis, and experimental characterization of functional domains of the ancestral protein from which all extant steroi...

Ancient duplication of cereal genomes.

How an ancient genome duplication electrified modern fish.

A t various chapters in the story of life on earth, certain characters arise that seem to open the door for explosions of new forms and species. From the flowers of angiosperms to the mammary glands of mammals, these so-called evolutionary innovations represent new features that change the playing field of evolution and carry with them a cascade of biodiversity. Where these novelties come from ...