The Evolution of Protein Structures

作者：Cyrus Chothia, Arthur M. Lesk · 发表于：Cold Spring Harbor Symposia on Quantitative Biology · 年份：1987 · DOI：10.1101/sqb.1987.052.01.046 · 被引用次数：86 · 研究领域：Protein Structure and Dynamics、Enzyme Structure and Function、RNA and protein synthesis mechanisms

As proteins evolve, their amino acid sequences change. These changes can be large—so large that members of the same protein family may have less than one-fifth of the residues at homologous sites are identical. In most instances, the large sequence changes result in no more than a modification of functional properties. How do very different sequences give proteins with similar structures and functions? To answer this question we analyzed in detail the atomic structure of homologous proteins. We determined the effects of the sequence differences on the structures of these proteins. The analyses showed that sequence changes are accommodated by changes in structure.