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- Sendker, Franziska L., et al.
(författare)
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Emergence of fractal geometries in the evolution of a metabolic enzyme
- 2024
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Ingår i: Nature. - : Springer Nature. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 628:8009, s. 894-900
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Fractals are patterns that are self-similar across multiple length-scales1. Macroscopic fractals are common in nature2,3,4; however, so far, molecular assembly into fractals is restricted to synthetic systems5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12. Here we report the discovery of a natural protein, citrate synthase from the cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus, which self-assembles into Sierpiński triangles. Using cryo-electron microscopy, we reveal how the fractal assembles from a hexameric building block. Although different stimuli modulate the formation of fractal complexes and these complexes can regulate the enzymatic activity of citrate synthase in vitro, the fractal may not serve a physiological function in vivo. We use ancestral sequence reconstruction to retrace how the citrate synthase fractal evolved from non-fractal precursors, and the results suggest it may have emerged as a harmless evolutionary accident. Our findings expand the space of possible protein complexes and demonstrate that intricate and regulatable assemblies can evolve in a single substitution.
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