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Letter

Nature Genetics 37, 73–76 (1 January 2005) | doi:10.1038/ng1482

The 'evolvability' of promiscuous protein functions

Amir Aharoni , Leonid Gaidukov , Olga Khersonsky , Stephen McQ Gould , Cintia Roodveldt & Dan S Tawfik

How proteins with new functions (e.g., drug or antibiotic resistance or degradation of man-made chemicals) evolve in a matter of months or years is still unclear. This ability is dependent on the induction of new phenotypic traits by a small number of mutations (plasticity).