I recently finished a lovely collaboration with Greg Finnigan, Tom Stevens, and Joe Thornton. Our work shows how a molecular machine — in this case, a proton pump — increased in structural complexity over evolutionary time. On a personal note, our project demonstrates the type of interdisciplinary work that can emerge when computational skills are combined with “wet” bench work.
Also, W. Ford Doolittle wrote a companion essay about our paper.
LINKS:
“Evolution of increased complexity in a molecular machine” — Finnigan, Hanson-Smith, et al. Nature 2012.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature10724.html
“Evolutionary biology: a ratchet for protein complexity” — Doolittle. Nature 2012.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature10816.html
