Resurrected Ancestors Reveal Origins of Metamorphism in XCL1

Patricia J LiWang; Lee-Ping Wang; Andy LiWang

doi:10.1016/j.tibs.2021.03.003

Resurrected Ancestors Reveal Origins of Metamorphism in XCL1

Trends Biochem Sci. 2021 Jun;46(6):433-434. doi: 10.1016/j.tibs.2021.03.003. Epub 2021 Mar 19.

Authors

Patricia J LiWang¹, Lee-Ping Wang², Andy LiWang³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Merced, CA 95343, USA. Electronic address: pliwang@ucmerced.edu.
² Department of Chemistry, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA. Electronic address: leeping@ucdavis.edu.
³ Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Merced, CA 95343, USA. Electronic address: aliwang@ucmerced.edu.

PMID: 33752957
DOI: 10.1016/j.tibs.2021.03.003

Abstract

In a recent study, Dishman et al. resurrected ancestors of the metamorphic chemokine, XCL1, inferred through phylogenetics, and found that metamorphism arose in the XCL1 lineage ~150 million years ago. A zigzagging evolutionary path suggests that the metamorphic properties are adaptive and reveals three design principles that could be used for technological applications.

Keywords: NMR; XCL1; chemokine; lymphotactin; metamorphic, monomorphic; protein.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Comment

MeSH terms

Chemokines, C*

Substances

Chemokines, C