Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 7, 2026

Structural Biology and Analytical Chemistry Approaches for Characterizing C-Glycoside Metabolic Enzymes in Human Gut Microbiota
Published on: May 23, 2025
Evolution of structure in gamma-class carbonic anhydrase and structurally related proteins
Xiang Fu1, Long-Jiang Yu, Li Mao-Teng
1Institute of Resource Biology & Biotechnology, Department of Biotechnology, College of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China.
Abstract:
Protein structure contains evolutionary information and it is more highly conserved than sequence. The evolution of structure in gamma-class carbonic anhydrase (gamma-CA) and its structurally related proteins (gammaCASRPs) were discussed. To obtain a reliable analysis, we defined a subset that contains all specificities and organisms as the nonredundant set using QR factorization based on the multiple structural alignment of the known crystallographic structures of gammaCASRPs with Q(H) as the structural homology measure. Then, we applied unweighted pair group method with arithmetic averages (UPGMA) to reconstruct structural phylogeny. We found that gamma-CA most likely arose through duplication events; the domain of gamma-CA underwent a process of alpha-helical content from amino-terminal end to carboxyl-terminal end of the left-handed beta-helix (LbetaH); the capacity of gamma-CA to bind Zn occurred early in evolution and only later included the ability to catalyze the reversible hydration of CO(2) efficiently for the occurrence of two loops involving Glu 62 and Glu 84, respectively, and a long helix at the carboxyl-terminal end of the LbetaH. In addition, the main conserved regions in these structures are in the structurally constrained residues of LbetaH domain, and the topology of the structural dendrogram can be rather easily understood in terms of functional diversification.
Related Concept Videos
Protein and Protein Structure
A protein's shape is critical to its function. For example, an enzyme can...
Protein Families
Protein Folding
Protein Folding
Protein Structure Is Critical to Its Biological Function
Proteins perform a wide range of biological functions such as catalyzing chemical reactions, providing...
Gene Families
Occasionally these regions can be adapted to take on new roles within the organism, becoming novel genes...
Globular Proteins
Globular proteins serve many important physiological functions, such as acting as enzymes, cellular messengers, and molecular transporters. These roles often require the proteins to be soluble in the aqueous...

