Atomic-Level Motion May Drive Bacteria’s Ability to Evade Immune System Defenses
April 21, 2017
Professor David Giedroc, senior author on the study, has found evidence that extremely small changes in how atoms move in bacterial proteins can play a big role in how these microorganisms function and evolve.
The research, recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is a major departure from prevailing views about the evolution of new functions in organisms, which regarded a protein's shape, or "structure," as the most important factor in controlling its activity.