News Life

Ancient enzymes adapted to a cooler Earth to keep life’s chemical reactions going

Re-creating 3-billion-year genetic history of adenylate kinase reveals evolutionary path

adenylate kinase enzyme bond

HOT AND COLD Scientists reconstructed three billion years of genetic history for the adenylate kinase enzyme (shown here bound to another molecule) to see how ancient enzymes might have adapted to a cooler Earth.

Ayacop/Wikimedia Commons 

By Laurel Hamers

This article is only available to Science News subscribers.

Subscribers, enter your e-mail address to access our archives.

Not a subscriber?

Science News is a nonprofit.

Support us by subscribing now.

More Stories from Science News on Life

  1. illustration of a brain with parts stimulated highlighted in red and yellow
    Neuroscience

    Mild zaps to the brain can boost a pain-relieving placebo effect

    By Jackie Rocheleau
  2. head of T. rex fossil
    Paleontology

    T. rex’s incredible biting force came from its stiff lower jaw

    By Sid Perkins
  3. Tengchong Yunnan hot springs in China
    Microbes

    These climate-friendly microbes recycle carbon without producing methane

    By Carolyn Gramling
  4. viruses from the Siphoviridae (left) and Podoviridae (right) families
    Life

    Some viruses thwart bacterial defenses with a unique genetic alphabet

    By Tina Hesman Saey
  5. soybean plant leaves infected with Fusarium virguliforme fungus
    Agriculture

    Nanoscale nutrients can protect plants from fungal diseases

    By Shi En Kim
  6. a kulan digging a hole in the ground
    Ecosystems

    Wild donkeys and horses engineer water holes that help other species

    By Jonathan Lambert
  7. black and white image of a mantis shrimp larva
    Animals

    Mantis shrimp start practicing their punches at just 9 days old

    By Charles Choi
  8. a mantis hanging from a leaf
    Animals

    This praying mantis inflates a strange pheromone gland to lure mates

    By Jake Buehler

From the Nature Index

Paid Content