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Evolutionary biology

A ratchet for protein complexity

Nature volume 481, pages 270–271 (2012)Cite this article

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Molecular machines containing related protein subunits are common in cells. Reconstruction of ancient proteins suggests that this type of complexity can evolve in the absence of any initial selective advantage. See Letter p.360

Organisms and cells are bewilderingly complicated, and the molecular machines that perform many basic cellular functions are often giant, multi-subunit, multifunctional protein complexes with tangled evolutionary histories. It is generally assumed that such complexes arose by the stepwise accretion of individual proteins, each addition representing a selective advantage by adding to or refining the machine's performance. But on page 360 of this issue, Thornton and colleagues1 argue against this standard explanation in one particular instance — that of a ring-shaped protein complex in fungi. The authors show how evolutionary processes entailing loss of function rather than gain might initially drive a system towards complexity, independently of selectionFootnote 1.

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Figure 1: Evolution of complexity in a protein ring.

Notes

  1. *This article and the paper1 under discussion were published online on 8 January 2012.

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  1. W. Ford Doolittle is in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 4R2, Canada.,

    W. Ford Doolittle

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  1. W. Ford Doolittle
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Correspondence to W. Ford Doolittle.

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Doolittle, W. A ratchet for protein complexity. Nature 481, 270–271 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature10816

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