In addition to its value in the study of molecular evolution, ancestral sequence reconstruction
(ASR) has emerged as a useful methodology for engineering proteins with enhanced …

The past several years have seen novel insights at the interface of protein biophysics and
evolution. The accepted paradigm that proteins can tolerate nearly any amino acid …

Plants possess multifunctional and rapidly evolving specialized metabolic enzymes. Many
metabolites do not appear to be immediately required for survival; nonetheless, many may …

Natural proteins are often only slightly more stable in the native state than the denatured
state, and an increase in environmental temperature can easily shift the balance toward …

Ancestral sequence reconstruction is essential to a variety of evolutionary studies. Here, we
present the FastML web server, a user-friendly tool for the reconstruction of ancestral …

With early life likely to have existed in a hot environment, enzymes had to cope with an
inherent drop in catalytic speed caused by lowered temperature. Here we characterize the …

Studies of evolution at the molecular level have experienced phenomenal growth in the last
few decades, due to rapid accumulation of genetic sequence data, improved computer …

Biosignatures and structures in the geological record indicate that microbial life has
inhabited Earth for the past 3.5 billion years or so,. Research in the physical sciences has …

Commercial biocatalysis requires robust enzymes that can withstand elevated temperatures
and long incubations. Ancestral reconstruction has shown that pre-Cambrian enzymes were …

Natural enzymes are delicate biomolecules possessing only marginal thermodynamic
stability. Poorly stable, misfolded, and aggregated proteins lead to huge economic losses in …