10 February 2005
Amino acids: winners and losers
A comparison of corresponding sets of proteins encoded by closely related genes from organisms representing all three domains of life (Bacteria, Archaea and Eukaryota) suggests that the order in which the genetic code was assembled over 3.5 billion years ago continues to influence the evolution of proteins today. Across these diverse genomes, evolving proteins have accumulated Cys, Met, His, Ser and Phe, and lost many of their Pro, Ala, Glu and Gly residues. The same nine amino acids are currently accrued or lost in human proteins as shown by analysis of nucleotide polymorphisms. The amino acids with declining frequencies were probably among the first incorporated into the genetic code, and most of those with increasing frequencies were probably recruited late.
A universal trend of amino acid gain and loss in protein evolution
I. KING JORDAN, FYODOR A. KONDRASHOV, IVAN A. ADZHUBEI, YURI I. WOLF, EUGENE V. KOONIN, ALEXEY S. KONDRASHOV & SHAMIL SUNYAEV
Nature 433, 633–637 (2005); doi:10.1038/nature03306
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