On the Evolution of Catalysis: The changing kinetics of core metabolic enzymes

TL;DRAbstract

Enzymes are biological catalysts that are essential to life: they are largely very efficient and exquisitely specialised to their substrate. They are, however, predicted to have evolved from simple promiscuous catalysts (able to catalyse multiple reactions on multiple substrates). The goal of this thesis was to explore the multiple models of evolution with three model enzymes.
\nIn a complementary model for enzyme evolution, it is hypothesised that some ancient enzymes may have exhibited higher catalytic rates than their extant descendants. This model was investigated through the reconstruction of core bacterial enzymes AroA (aromatic amino acid biosynthesis) and MurA (peptidoglycan biosynthesis), from the common ancestor of modern Streptoccocci species. The ~300 million year old ancestral enzyme conformed to the model, with 20-fold higher activity than MurA enzymes in modern Streptococci.
\nSeveral models for enzyme evolution, both primordial and contemporary, require a multif

Chat with Paper

AI Agents for this Paper