Production of mustard oils: On the origin of an enzyme
Thursday, March 17, 2011 - 21:21
in Biology & Nature
In the evolutionary arms race, small changes can be sufficient to gain advantage. Scientists found that the ancestor of a gene involved in making chemical defenses in plants of the mustard family, such as rapeseed, originally had a completely different function, playing a part in the formation of leucine, an amino acid. Small changes in the enzyme structure enabled it to take over new tasks that could increase the survival advantage of the plants.