TY - CHAP
T1 - A Strategy for Designing Thermostable Enzymes by Reconstructing Ancestral Sequences Possessed by Ancient Life
AU - Akanuma, Satoshi
AU - Yamagishi, Akihiko
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016.
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - The amino acid sequences of some ancestral proteins have been inherited in their descendants with a few modifications. Therefore, in some cases, a phylogenetic tree can be constructed by comparing extant amino acid sequences that were evolved from a single common ancestor. Moreover, ancestral sequences of a particular protein can be inferred using the topology of the phylogenetic tree in combination with the extant amino acid sequences contained in the tree. We recently inferred ancestral amino acid sequences of nucleoside diphosphate kinase that might have existed 3,500–3,800 million years ago. Physicochemical analysis of the experimentally reconstructed ancestral sequences revealed that the resurrected proteins are stable around 100 °C. Given the hyperthermophilicity of ancient organisms, the ancestral sequence reconstruction technique presented in this chapter will serve as a generic method for creating thermally stable proteins.
AB - The amino acid sequences of some ancestral proteins have been inherited in their descendants with a few modifications. Therefore, in some cases, a phylogenetic tree can be constructed by comparing extant amino acid sequences that were evolved from a single common ancestor. Moreover, ancestral sequences of a particular protein can be inferred using the topology of the phylogenetic tree in combination with the extant amino acid sequences contained in the tree. We recently inferred ancestral amino acid sequences of nucleoside diphosphate kinase that might have existed 3,500–3,800 million years ago. Physicochemical analysis of the experimentally reconstructed ancestral sequences revealed that the resurrected proteins are stable around 100 °C. Given the hyperthermophilicity of ancient organisms, the ancestral sequence reconstruction technique presented in this chapter will serve as a generic method for creating thermally stable proteins.
KW - Amino Acid Composition
KW - Ancestral Sequence
KW - Composite Tree
KW - Nucleoside Diphosphate Kinase
KW - Reverse Gyrase
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U2 - 10.1007/978-3-319-13521-2_20
DO - 10.1007/978-3-319-13521-2_20
M3 - Chapter
AN - SCOPUS:85029820872
T3 - Grand Challenges in Biology and Biotechnology
SP - 581
EP - 596
BT - Grand Challenges in Biology and Biotechnology
PB - Springer Science and Business Media B.V.
ER -