{"id":8240,"date":"2016-10-14T09:20:33","date_gmt":"2016-10-14T07:20:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.embl.de\/?p=8240"},"modified":"2024-07-23T16:01:06","modified_gmt":"2024-07-23T14:01:06","slug":"1016-evolution-hidden-plain-sight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/1016-evolution-hidden-plain-sight\/","title":{"rendered":"Drivers of evolution hidden in plain sight"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Research led by the European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) and the University of Washington has shown that the biological diversity needed for evolution can be generated by changes in protein modifications. The findings,&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/science.sciencemag.org\/content\/354\/6309\/229\"><span class=\"s2\">published today in&nbsp;<i>Science<\/i><\/span><\/a>, provide valuable insights into how different species adapt to different environments and could shed light on how pathogens evolve and become resistant to drugs.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cThis study is about understanding how evolution works, which tells you how species adapt to changing environments over many generations,\u201d says&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ebi.ac.uk\/research\/beltrao\"><span class=\"s2\">Pedro Beltrao<\/span><\/a><\/span><span class=\"s1\">, a research group leader at EMBL-EBI. \u201cFor example, when you compare humans and chimps, they are obviously different, even though a good part of their genetic makeup is more or less the same. Our task is to figure out how diversity is generated, so that we can see in detail how life evolves. That helps us understand how plants and animals adapt and change, and how cancers or bacteria find their way around drugs.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"p2 wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"s1\">A question of expression<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Research into the drivers of genetic diversity has largely focused on gene expression, which controls how much of a given protein will be made, when, and in what tissue. However, the researchers found that a well-known cellular mechanism \u2013 one that controls how proteins acquire new functions \u2013 also plays a major role.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Proteins are controlled by other proteins by way of \u2018post-translational modification\u2019 (PTM). One type of PTM is phosphorylation: a rapid, versatile protein-regulation mechanism. During evolution PTMs can be acquired via mutations, which allows proteins to gain new functions, turn on or off at different times, and go to different places in the cell.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Previous studies comparing proteins in related species have shown very few mutations, so PTMs have not been considered to be a major factor in generating diversity. In today\u2019s study, the group found that only a few mutations are actually required to change these protein-modification sites. In other words, a small number of changes can have a big impact on how proteins and cells work.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"vf-blockquote\"><p class=\"p1\">These mutations were hidden in plain sight \u2013 we could see them all along, but didn\u2019t know they could have such significant consequences<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cThese mutations were hidden in plain sight \u2013 we could see them all along, but didn\u2019t know they could have such significant consequences,\u201d says Beltrao. \u201cWe only see it now after many years of developing and refining new experimental methods.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"p2 wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"s1\">Change is the constant<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Using experimental and computational methods, the researchers reconstructed the evolutionary history of phosphorylation sites \u2013 the modifications that can control proteins \u2013 in 18 different single-celled species. They determined how long these control points have existed, when they were acquired and how quickly they have changed across species over millions of years.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The group found that most of the phosphorylation sites had come about relatively recently in evolution, indicating that they are part of what make the species different \u2013 and a major contributor to evolutionary diversity.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cIf a species needs to adapt to a new setting, it needs to generate a lot of diversity over many generations so that evolution has a pool of options to select from. One way for that to happen is through changes in gene expression, but changes in phosphorylation are equally effective,\u201d explains Beltrao.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"p2 wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"s1\">Cancer: the expert lock picker<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The diversity generated by PTMs is an important consideration in tackling cancer. Some cancer drugs stop tumours by blocking the signalling pathway that allows the tumour to grow, effectively placing a lock on a protein \u2018door\u2019. But, through mutations, cancers find ways to create new PTMs and signalling events, effectively manufacturing millions of different keys. Most of the keys will be useless, but one is bound to fit the lock eventually, and the tumour can start growing again.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cLearning more about the role of PTMs in evolution also presents a much more reliable picture of how signalling proteins integrate and relay information inside the cell,\u201d adds Beltrao. \u201cThis in turn could present exciting new avenues for therapeutic research.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>This post was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ebi.ac.uk\/about\/news\/press-releases\/drivers-evolution-hidden-plain-sight\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"canonical nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-href=\"https:\/\/www.ebi.ac.uk\/about\/news\/press-releases\/drivers-evolution-hidden-plain-sight\">EMBL-EBI News.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A rapid, versatile mechanism that modifies proteins is revealed to be crucial for the evolutionary process<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17591],"tags":[442,36,31],"embl_taxonomy":[],"class_list":["post-8240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science","category-science-technology","tag-beltrao","tag-embl-ebi","tag-evolution"],"acf":{"article_intro":"<p>A rapid, versatile mechanism that modifies proteins is revealed to be crucial for the evolutionary process<\/p>\n","related_links":[{"link_description":"","link_url":""},{"link_description":"","link_url":""}],"article_sources":[{"source_description":"<p>Studer RA, <em>et al.<\/em>, (2016)\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/science.sciencemag.org\/content\/354\/6309\/229\"><span class=\"s2\">Evolution of protein phosphorylation across 18 fungal species<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<i>Science<\/i>\u00a0(in press); published online 14 October. DOI: 10.1126\/science.aaf2144<\/p>\n","source_link_url":"http:\/\/science.sciencemag.org\/content\/354\/6309\/229"}],"vf_locked":false,"featured":false,"color":"#007B53","show_featured_image":false,"field_target_display":"embl","field_article_language":{"value":"english","label":"English"},"source_article":false,"in_this_article":false,"press_contact":"None","article_translations":false,"languages":""},"embl_taxonomy_terms":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Drivers of evolution hidden in plain sight | EMBL-EBI research<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Study of evolution by EMBL-EBI and UW provides insights into how different species adapt and could shed light on how pathogens become resistant to drugs.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/1016-evolution-hidden-plain-sight\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Drivers of evolution hidden in plain sight | EMBL-EBI research\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Study of evolution by EMBL-EBI and UW provides insights into how different species adapt and could shed light on how pathogens become resistant to drugs.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/1016-evolution-hidden-plain-sight\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"EMBL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/embl.org\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"www.facebook.com\/EMBLEBI\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-10-14T07:20:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-07-23T14:01:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/EMBL_logo_colour.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1638\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"783\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mary Todd Bergman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@EMBLEBI\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@embl\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mary Todd Bergman\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/1016-evolution-hidden-plain-sight\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/1016-evolution-hidden-plain-sight\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Mary Todd Bergman\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/052a43af2beb3860bffa67c0f0474875\"},\"headline\":\"Drivers of evolution hidden in plain sight\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-10-14T07:20:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-07-23T14:01:06+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/science\/1016-evolution-hidden-plain-sight\/\"},\"wordCount\":675,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"beltrao\",\"embl-ebi\",\"evolution\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Science\",\"Science &amp; 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