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How evolving enzymes can beat the heat and avoid defeat

Random mutations usually destabilize protein tertiary structure. Overexpression of the chaperonin GroEL/GroES protects evolving proteins from the destabilizing effects of adaptive mutations and improves the quantity and quality of enzyme variants with modified function.

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Figure 1: Chaperonin overexpression accelerates adaptive protein evolution.

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Correspondence to Ichiro Matsumura.

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Matsumura, I., Ivanov, A. How evolving enzymes can beat the heat and avoid defeat. Nat Chem Biol 5, 538–539 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio0809-538

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