Dan Tawfik

 

February 3, 2011

 

 

"The evolutionist’s guide to the galaxy of sequence space"

 

Proteins constantly diverge in sequence, drifting further and further away from from their origin (the common ancestor from which they diverged) and also from one another. What drives this process that has been compared to space expansion? Analysis of contemporary proteins suggests that, along certain dimensions, the expansion of sequence space is limited - namely, certain protein positions will never change. Indeed, mutations in highly conserved positions usually result in loss of protein function. Will such positions ever change? If so, how? Our laboratory evolution experiments indicate that neutral drift, i.e., sequence changes that have no apparent effects, enable highly conserved position to become permissive, thus allowing proteins to diverge at key positions that are deemed essential for structure and function.

 

Dan Tawfik is the leading expert in the new and exciting field of protein evolution. You can find more info here: http://www.weizmann.ac.il/Biological_Chemistry/scientist/Tawfik/