Evidence map›Paper›PMID 17598905›Full record

ArticleBiology direct2007

Neutral genetic drift can alter promiscuous protein functions, potentially aiding functional evolution.

Jesse D Bloom, Philip A Romero, Zhongyi Lu, Frances H Arnold

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Biology direct, 2007. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 79 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
79citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
14.4field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

79 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 167 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Promiscuity-Guided Enzyme Evolution via Substrate Multiplexed Screening.Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) · 2026
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  7. Analysis of neutral mutational drift in an allosteric enzyme.Protein science : a publication of the Protein Society · 2023
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19 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Jesse D BloomDivision of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA. jesse.bloom@gmail.com
Philip A Romero
Zhongyi Lu
Frances H Arnold
California Institute of Technology · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundMany of the mutations accumulated by naturally evolving proteins are neutral in the sense that they do not significantly alter a protein's ability to perform its primary biological function. However, new protein functions evolve when selection begins to favor other, "promiscuous" functions that are incidental to a protein's original biological role. If mutations that are neutral with respect to a protein's primary biological function cause substantial changes in promiscuous functions, these mutations could enable future functional evolution.

resultsHere we investigate this possibility experimentally by examining how cytochrome P450 enzymes that have evolved neutrally with respect to activity on a single substrate have changed in their abilities to catalyze reactions on five other substrates. We find that the enzymes have sometimes changed as much as four-fold in the promiscuous activities. The changes in promiscuous activities tend to increase with the number of mutations, and can be largely rationalized in terms of the chemical structures of the substrates. The activities on chemically similar substrates tend to change in a coordinated fashion, potentially providing a route for systematically predicting the change in one activity based on the measurement of several others.

conclusionOur work suggests that initially neutral genetic drift can lead to substantial changes in protein functions that are not currently under selection, in effect poising the proteins to more readily undergo functional evolution should selection favor new functions in the future.

Identifiers

PMID17598905
PMCPMC1914045
OpenAlexW2146473657

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.