You are currently viewing the abstract.
View Full TextLog in to view the full text
AAAS login provides access to Science for AAAS members, and access to other journals in the Science family to users who have purchased individual subscriptions.
More options
Download and print this article for your personal scholarly, research, and educational use.
Buy a single issue of Science for just $15 USD.
Abstract
Evolution reuses established modules. At the level of cell signaling, protein domains are used in many contexts to transfer different messages. A frequently occurring binding domain uses a structural scaffold to allow for sequence variation at critical sites without compromising structural stability. Even random mutations have a high chance of conferring a novel function, and only a small fraction of available sequence space is actually explored. Accordingly, current lab techniques allow us to infer evolutionary routes, exploring the possible and the attainable in terms of complex structure-function relationships.
