DATE2025.09.22 #Press Releases
The history of protein complex structure evolution is repeatable
Disclaimer: machine translated by DeepL which may contain errors.
---Experimental proof based on serendipitous discoveries from large-scale genomic data---
Summary
A research team at the School of Science, The University of Tokyo, including Visiting Collaborative Researcher Naoki Konno and Professor Chikara Furusawa, has identified a novel bifunctional enzyme, BdhE, involved in alcohol metabolism by analyzing bacterial genomes. They also found that the three-dimensional structure of this protein complex has undergone convergent evolution in two distinct lineages.
By combining genome analysis of over 20,000 bacterial species, enzyme activity assays, and protein structural studies, the team was able to discover new genes and explore protein evolution based on both function and structure. This work extends the study of protein convergent evolution from the level of individual amino acids or local structures to the scale of entire protein complexes.
The enzyme discovered in this study has a structure that allows it to efficiently catalyze a two-step alcohol metabolism reaction, and it holds promise for applications in metabolic engineering, including bioethanol production.
Figure : The complex structures of fusion enzymes AdhE and BdhE have convergently evolved.
Journals
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Journal Title Nature Communications Title of Paper Repeatability of protein structural evolution following convergent gene fusions Author(s)
Naoki Konno*, Keita Miyake, Satoshi Nishino, Kimiho Omae, Haruaki Yanagisawa, Saburo Tsuru, Yuki Nishimura, Masahide Kikkawa, Chikara Furusawa, Wataru IwasakiDOI Number 10.1038/s41467-025-63898-x