Dokholyan Nikolay V, Shakhnovich Boris, Shakhnovich Eugene I
Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, 12 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2002 Oct 29;99(22):14132-6. doi: 10.1073/pnas.202497999. Epub 2002 Oct 16.
The bottom-up approach to understanding the evolution of organisms is by studying molecular evolution. With the large number of protein structures identified in the past decades, we have discovered peculiar patterns that nature imprints on protein structural space in the course of evolution. In particular, we have discovered that the universe of protein structures is organized hierarchically into a scale-free network. By understanding the cause of these patterns, we attempt to glance at the very origin of life.
自下而上理解生物体进化的方法是研究分子进化。在过去几十年中,随着大量蛋白质结构被识别出来,我们发现了自然在进化过程中烙印在蛋白质结构空间上的奇特模式。特别是,我们发现蛋白质结构的整体是分层组织成一个无标度网络的。通过理解这些模式的成因,我们试图窥探生命的真正起源。