Researchers Resurrect Ancient Enzymes to Reveal Conditions of Early Life on Earth

Scientists from Columbia University, Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Granada have for the first time reconstructed active enzymes from four-billion-year-old extinct organisms. By measuring the properties of these enzymes, they can examine the conditions in which the extinct organisms lived. The results shed new light on how life has adapted to changes in the environment from ancient to modern Earth. By reconstructing enzymes like thioredoxin, shown here in this structural model, scientists can examine the conditions in which extinct organisms lived. In their study, the researchers used vast amounts of genetic data to computationally reconstruct the genes of extinct species, a technique known as ancestral sequence reconstruction. The researchers then went a step further and synthesized the proteins encoded by these genes. They focused on a specific protein, thioredoxin , a vital enzyme found in all living cells.