Using Pseudoenzymes to Probe Evolutionary Design Principles of Enzymes. (June 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sharir-Ivry, Avital; Xia, Yu
• Is Part Of: Evolutionary bioinformatics online. Volume 15(2019)
• Publication Date: 2019-06
• Subjects: enzyme evolution -- pseudoenzymes -- evolutionary conservation gradient -- ligand binding -- allosteric sites; Bioinformatics -- Periodicals; Evolutionary computation -- Periodicals; Genetic programming (Computer science) -- Periodicals; Computational Biology; Evolution, Molecular; Bioinformatics; Electronic journals; Periodicals; Fulltext; Internet Resources; Periodicals; Periodicals; 576.8
• DOI: 10.1177/1176934319855937
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1176-9343

Abstract

Enzymes are governed by unique evolutionary design principles as their catalytic sites were shown to induce long-range evolutionary conservation gradients. We have recently used a comparative bioinformatics approach to disentangle structural determinants from other possible determinants of the evolutionary conservation gradients. The approach is based on comparing the evolutionary patterns of enzymes to those of pseudoenzymes with the same tertiary structure where the catalytic functionality is turned off. This approach provides a way to evaluate several hypotheses regarding the origin of the observed evolutionary conservation gradient in enzymes. The conclusions from such comparative analyses are important for a better understanding of the unique evolutionary design principles of enzymes, which can in turn potentially guide the design of new and improved enzymes.