These “unwanted” proteins may nourish adaptation

CEmmy Ghostleter, a biologist at Ell recently, started to solve a puzzle that relates to one of the most important features of development: adaptation. After a study, I noticed that one of her favorite fungi, Ashbia JosebayyIt flourishes in a wide range of environments, from tropical areas in Trinidad to the cold plains of Wisconsin often. How, began to wonder, have simple fantasy fungi, with their small genome and a simple life cycle, have evolved, such a diversity-How did the strains of the beach town differ from those that are adapted to the cold?

Gladfelter decided to tamper with Ashbia JosebayyA genetic symbol to find out what you can discover. In her laboratory at the Faculty of Medicine at Duke University, she and her team Ethics Through 70 breed of fungi and began to systematically replace proteins in their DNA. In particular, focus on a protein called WHI3, famous for being a little predictable. Instead of locking in a specific location inside a cell or maintaining one -dimensional shape, like most proteins, the Whi3 is more chaotic and more chaotic: it migrates from part of the cell to another depending on the cellular conditions, and the sequence of the amino acids is unstable, and it tends to repetition and alternative.

The Gladfelter team took a single fungal breed from Wisconsin usually grows at 50 degrees Fahrenheit, and another fluid from Florida, which used to vaporize 99 degrees, and switch small sections of their WHI3 proteins. The researchers discovered that these simple adjustments were sufficient to make the fungi adapted to the cold behave like her beach -loving brother. While Wisconsin’s fungi would have usually stopped growing and died if they were planted to Florida, cells that contain parts of the WHI3 of the Florida breed that are branching instead, and extending over the dishes through the petroeratic dishes that were kept at 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. Something about Whi3 helped the organism to learn heat.

He realized that it was no exception – it was a new rule.

“We have seen, Wow, this is enough to make cold fungi behave mainly as if they were from a warm climate,” says Gladfelter.

The new hybrid is now more sensitive to the cold, too, as it picks up both the strengths and weaknesses of its warmer counterpart. Similar thing happened when they gave Florida strains of WHI3 protein from Wescloomes; Florida breeds have become more like Wisconsin-more tolerant, and more sensitive to heat.

The results add to an increasing collection of research that indicates that a group of unconventional proteins known as turbulent proteins, which are found inside fungi and plants – but also in animals, including humans – occupy a major role in helping the Earth creatures to adapt to their surroundings and adapt to different environments.

Scientists believe that learning more about these proteins may help them to improve heat-resistant plants that can tolerate climate change-even understanding the nature of adaptation itself.

“We know that these proteins are common, and we know that they are everywhere,” says Gladfelter. “Maybe there are a lot of different ways [disordered] Proteins can change to make fungi more or less sensitive to temperature, right? But we do not yet know what these rules are, and really what are the grammatical rules for that. “

It believes that the powers of the turbulent proteins that they have found so far are the beginning only: “We will see if we are right.”

andUncration generally follows the shape in the world of proteins. It is built of amino acid chains, which can be wrinkled and bent in a variety of oregami-like shapes-some like balls, others such as chains, for example. The doctrine of the chemistry book has always been that the purpose of protein is determined by its structure: how it folds.

That is, until scientists faced turbulent proteins for the first time and noticed that the sequence of amino acids can be tolerated. In some turbulent proteins, they found that all amino acids can replace places. In other cases, only one arm of protein was liquid.

“This man is in a laboratory, this funny protein has shown me,” says Vladimir Oversky, who is now a protein expert at the University of Florida, who found the first turbulent proteins while working in Russia in 1993. Perhaps there was something wrong in its experimental preparation, and this was undesirable from the cell. But then he realized that it was no exception – it was a new base.

“I felt very enthusiastic about this idea,” he remembers Uversky. At the end of the century, published His first paper Description of a new category of proteins with turbulent serials in essence or structure, which are very important to biology, however. We already have two protein Aquak, Oversky decided. He says, “A world of the temple, another world of turmoil.” “People were telling me that I was crazy.”

With the improvement of mathematical models, it has become easier for Uversky to determine more of these chaotic proteins and collect evidence to support its case. The new results indicate that half of all the proteins made by living organisms Disturbed– They are completely or partially – and the turbulent proteins are involved in it Decisive jobs Such as copying DNA, cell division, immunity, among other things. These chaotic molecules appeared in studies on humans, plants and fungi. Another research revealed that the more complicated the organism, the greater the possibility of its existence Turbulent proteins.

Uversky argues that turbulent proteins may have been the first proteins to develop, and the organized proteins that we know today came later. He believes that turbulent proteins play a major role in the ability to adapt to living organisms, and predicts that this may have been in particular for thousands of years, when the environment was more cruel and more hot than today.

Uversky believes Gladfelter’s work on different cold and hot strains Ashbia Josebayy This speculation supports, and the greatest idea is that “turmoil is crucial to adaptation.”

DISORDER definitely looks strong. in Ashbia Josebayy The study, the Gladfelter team replaced only 20 amino acids from more than 720 amino acids in the WHI3 protein – and this was sufficient for its fungi from Wisconsin to start behavior like Florida fungi. Gladfelter says that a small slice of turbulent protein can radically change the environment inside the cell.

It indicates that, mainly, the sequence of amino acids in these huge proteins is sufficiently flexible so that they can turn the environment, allowing the types that make them adapt quickly. She says that these transformations “may appear during the life of the organism,” and if they are adaptive, “are fixed in a population over multiple generations.”

We already have two different protein universes.

Gladfelter results are supported by research from another team of scientists, who recently analysis The effect that applies to the turbulent parts of the protein is called ELF3 (abbreviation of early flowering) on the temperature sensitivity of the Thale Cress. These serials seem to serve as faded keys to a temperature sensor. In plants that contain this turbulent bit, ELF3 is turned off when temperatures reach about 81 degrees Fahrenheit, allowing Thale Cress to grow more quickly. When this turbulent area is absent, ELF3 is not turned off, and the plant continues to grow slowly like the plant in a cold climate, even when the temperatures rise.

The author of the study, Philip Wig, a professor of vegetable adaptation from the Leibniz Institute for Vegetable and Decorating Crops in Germany, suggests thinking about turbulent proteins such as sails on a boat. If it is relatively calm, one wants the largest possible sail to arrest what the small wind blows on. When you are very storm, smaller sails are needed or the boat will hold a lot of wind and move in the sea. In the same way, ELF3 proteins in plants of cold climates contain very large slices of their disorder to sell small amounts of heat, allowing short periods of superior growth, while plants of tropical climates have smaller disturbed parts. They do not need an additional increase in growth during the warm periods due to the presence of a lot of heat to wrap. In the upcoming paper, Wigge suggests that turbulent proteins serve the same function in algae as well. “This is a widely preserved mechanism,” he says.

A Ticket Last year compared three types of yeasts and resulted in similar results: studies on rice and soybeanalso. until Studies on tardigradesThe superficial pickles known to survive in the outer space of the outer space indicate that they are very large in avoiding death by dehydration and maximum temperatures due to an abundance of turbulent proteins in essence.

Outside the laboratory, these proteins may play a decisive role in allowing some plants and fungi to continue their original ecosystems with climate transformations of the Earth. These proteins are likely to use themselves to adapt certain crops with climate change cases via genetic engineering, says Wigge – which increases greater disturbances in plants that need more flexibility. “While the work is still primarily,” the race is working now, “says Wigge.

Lead Image: Irkhabar / Shutterstock

• Sofia Quaglia

  Spread on July 30, 2025

  Sophia Quaglia is an independent journalist who writes about everything science and nature and how we talk about it. Her work appeared in The New York Times, BBC, National Geographian, Guardian, New World, And more. It is on a mission to visit the entire planet by spending every month in a different country, so she has lived on the road since 2021. You can find it on X (previously known as Twitter) on Sofiquaglia.