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Updated: Jul 20, 2026

Self-assembly of Complex Two-dimensional Shapes from Single-stranded DNA Tiles
Published on: May 8, 2015
Structural evidence for evolution of the beta/alpha barrel scaffold by gene duplication and fusion
1European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) Hamburg Outstation, EMBL c/o Deutsches Elektronen- Synchrotron (DESY), Notkestrasse 85, D-22603 Hamburg, Germany.
Abstract:
The atomic structures of two proteins in the histidine biosynthesis pathway consist of beta/alpha barrels with a twofold repeat pattern. It is likely that these proteins evolved by twofold gene duplication and gene fusion from a common half-barrel ancestor. These ancestral domains are not visible as independent domains in the extant proteins but can be inferred from a combination of sequence and structural analysis. The detection of subdomain structures may be useful in efforts to search genome sequences for functionally and structurally related proteins.
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