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Evolutionary Aspects of the Structure of Proteins
Author(s) -
Acher R.
Publication year - 1966
Publication title -
angewandte chemie international edition in english
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.831
H-Index - 550
eISSN - 1521-3773
pISSN - 0570-0833
DOI - 10.1002/anie.196607981
Subject(s) - phylogenetic tree , protein evolution , amino acid , biology , evolutionary biology , protein structure , amino acid residue , sequence (biology) , protein sequencing , biological evolution , molecular evolution , peptide sequence , most recent common ancestor , computational biology , genetics , biochemistry , gene
The evolution of protein structures is discussed using cytochrome c, hemoglobin, and neurohypophyseal hormones as examples. Although these substances have different biological functions, their evolution is controlled by the same general rules: their primary structures vary at the level of the species, order, or class, but this variation is restricted by the fact that the biological activity of the protein must not be impaired. Alterations (i.e. substitutions, deletions, or additions of amino acid residues) can therefore occur only in certain positions of the peptide chains, although with different frequencies. The total number of alterations thus represents only the final state of a protein and does not take into account successive substitutions which may have taken place at the affected sites. It can therefore give only a rough indication of the phylogenetic distance between two species. The nature of the substituting residues, on the other hand, is a useful guide to zoological cognateness, since it allows the identification of transition molecules which simultaneously contain amino acid residues from the protein of the protein of the evolutionary ancestor and from the protein of the evolutionary descendant.