Darwin, nós temos um grande problema: as pesquisas do genoma e proteoma do LUCA não concordam entre si!

The evolution of proteome: From the primeval to the very dawn of LUCA

MiryamPalacios-Pérez, Marco V.José

Theoretical Biology Group, Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad de México CDMX, C.P. 04510, Mexico

First published: 03 June 2022

https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8930

Image/Imagem: BioSystems

Abstract

The availability of genomic and proteomic data from across the tree of life has made it possible to infer features of the genome and proteome of the last universal common ancestor (LUCA). A number of studies have done so, all using a unique set of methods and bioinformatics databases. Here, we compare predictions across eight such studies and measure both their agreement with one another and with the consensus predictions among them. We find that some LUCA genome studies show a strong agreement with the consensus predictions of the others, but that no individual study shares a high or even moderate degree of similarity with any other individual study. From these observations, we conclude that the consensus among studies provides a more accurate depiction of the core proteome of the LUCA and its functional repertoire. The set of consensus LUCA protein family predictions between all of these studies portrays a LUCA genome that, at minimum, encoded functions related to protein synthesis, amino acid metabolism, nucleotide metabolism, and the use of common, nucleotide-derived organic cofactors.

FREE PDF GRATIS: Ecology & Evolution

+++++

EXCERPT:

"We undertook this study with the hypothesis that the specific predictions of the various studies on the LUCA genome or proteome performed over the last two decades would largely agree with one another. We expected that each study should have some unknowable level of error because it is inherently difficult to infer specific details about life forms that existed at least 3.5 billion years ago. However, if the previously published LUCA genome or proteome studies are at all accurate, they should agree with one another and, because these studies have used largely independent approaches to infer features of the LUCA genome and proteome, agreement between them could be taken as support for this sort of approach."

Surprisingly, we found that studies of the genome or proteome of the LUCA do not uniformly agree with one another.”

+++++

Darwin, we got a huge problem!!! Over!!!