Scientists Find Ancient Protein that Gives a New View of Evolution

Researchers at the University of Oregon are taking a trip back in time to take a look for the first time at the structure of a very ancient protein and by doing so are able to see in great detail just how the functions of genes evolved.

Proteins are called the workhorses of the cells and to be able to get such a detailed knowledge of just how these proteins have evolved, a result that scientists have not been able to determine basically because they did not have this ancient protein to study, is leading to an entirely new look at evolution.

The project leader, project leader Joe Thornton, who is an evolutionary biologist at the University of Oregon, along with Jamie Bridgham, a postdoctoral scientist in his lab were able to use the latest state-of-the-art computational and molecular techniques to actually recreate the ancient ancestors of one of the most important human proteins.

Then they joined forces with University of North Carolina biochemists Eric Ortlund and Matthew Redinbo who were able to use ultra-high energy X-rays at the Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago and by doing so, were able to make a chart of the exact position of each and every one of the 2,000 atoms that make up the ancient protein.

Then the teams then came together to explore how the changes that have occurred in the atomic structure of the protein over the millions and millions of years have caused it to evolve into a crucial new function responds in a unique way to the hormone that regulates stress.

They focused in particular on the glucocorticoid receptor (GR), a protein that is in humans as well as other vertebrates. This is the element that allows cells to respond to a particular hormone call cortisol, which is the hormone that regulates our response to stress.