Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity, University of Muenster, Huefferstraße 1, 48149 Muenster, Germany; Department of Protein Evolution, MPI for developmental Biology, Tuebingen, Germany.
Department of Cell Biology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Biocev, Prague, Czech Republic; Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Gilead Sciences and IOCB Research Center, Flemingovo nám. 2, 166 10 Prague, Czech Republic.
Curr Opin Struct Biol. 2021 Jun;68:175-183. doi: 10.1016/j.sbi.2020.11.010. Epub 2021 Feb 7.
Comparative evolutionary genomics has revealed that novel protein coding genes can emerge randomly from non-coding DNA. While most of the myriad of transcripts which continuously emerge vanish rapidly, some attain regulatory regions, become translated and survive. More surprisingly, sequence properties of de novo proteins are almost indistinguishable from randomly obtained sequences, yet de novo proteins may gain functions and integrate into eukaryotic cellular networks quite easily. We here discuss current knowledge on de novo proteins, their structures, functions and evolution. Since the existence of de novo proteins seems at odds with decade-long attempts to construct proteins with novel structures and functions from scratch, we suggest that a better understanding of de novo protein evolution may fuel new strategies for protein design.
比较进化基因组学揭示，新的蛋白质编码基因可以随机从非编码 DNA 中出现。虽然不断涌现的无数转录本中的大多数很快就消失了，但有些转录本获得了调控区域，被翻译并存活下来。更令人惊讶的是，从头开始产生的蛋白质的序列特性几乎与随机获得的序列无法区分，但从头开始产生的蛋白质可能很容易获得功能并融入真核细胞网络。在这里，我们讨论了关于从头开始产生的蛋白质的最新知识，包括它们的结构、功能和进化。由于从头开始产生的蛋白质的存在似乎与数十年来试图从头开始构建具有新结构和功能的蛋白质的努力相悖，因此我们建议，更好地理解从头开始产生的蛋白质的进化可能为蛋白质设计提供新的策略。
