Using phylogenetic analysis, ancestral forms of thioredoxin reflecting the sequences likely to have existed at key evolutionary points have now been synthesized and analyzed. Single-molecule analysis indicates that all of the reconstructed enzymes use the extant reaction mechanism but that the most ancient are optimally active at low pH and resistant to higher temperatures, conditions that would have existed on early earth.
- Raul Perez-Jimenez
- Alvaro Inglés-Prieto
- Julio M Fernandez
