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Chemical and biological evolution of a nucleotide-binding protein

Abstract

Three-dimensional alignment of the common nucleotide binding structure in dehydrogenases, kinases and flavodoxins permits the recognition of homologous amino acids when sequence comparisons alone would fail. Minimum base changes per codon can then be used to measure evolutionary distances which suggest that this structure was present during precellular evolution.

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Rossmann, M., Moras, D. & Olsen, K. Chemical and biological evolution of a nucleotide-binding protein. Nature 250, 194–199 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1038/250194a0

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