Abstract
The complex and bioactive monoterpene indole alkaloids (MIAs) found in Catharanthus roseus and related species are the products of many millions of years of evolution through mutation and natural selection. Ancestral sequence reconstruction (ASR) is a method that combines phylogenetic analysis and experimental biochemistry to infer details about past events in protein evolution. Here, I propose that ASR could be leveraged to understand how enzymes catalyzing the formation of complex alkaloids arose over evolutionary time. I discuss the steps of ASR, including sequence selection, multiple sequence alignment, tree inference, and the generation and characterization of inferred ancestral enzymes.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Catharanthus roseus |
| Subtitle of host publication | Methods and Protocols |
| Publisher | Springer |
| Pages | 165-179 |
| Number of pages | 15 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 978-1-0716-2349-7 |
| ISBN (Print) | 978-1-0716-2348-0 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 23 Jun 2022 |
Publication series
| Name | Methods in molecular biology |
|---|---|
| Volume | 2505 |
| ISSN (Print) | 1064-3745 |
| ISSN (Electronic) | 1940-6029 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
Keywords
- Enzyme evolution
- Metabolic evolution
- Molecular evolution
- Phylogenetics
- Specialized metabolism