To Bob Rose and his colleagues, evolution isn't just a theoryit's the basis for their whole career.
"The idea of evolution is seminal to biochemistry," Rose, professor of biochemistry, said. Rose is currently working with the University, researching the gene that promotes insulin-production in various species.
"We do a lot of comparisons between species, which is very evolution-based." Rose said.
Rose is currently working on comparing the insulin promoter between humans, rats and mice in order to understand what things are conserved between the species. One of the key differences between these species is that mice have two insulin genes, whereas humans only have one.
"For some reason, the function was important enough to warrant two genes we see variations like that a lot," Rose said.
Despite those differences, enough is conserved between the proteins that regulate the genes and even the genes themselves that researchers can examine them as an important evolutionarily-preserved function.
According to Paul Wollenzien, professor of biochemistry, the first signs of evolution came at the earliest stages of life. Originally, polymers of RNA, nucleic acids that can code genetic information, self-competed for replication. Next came proteins translated from that primary genetic code, and finally life began to emerge.
Even in modern organisms, there are clues to these early events. For example, there are sequences within ribosomal RNA that are shared between the three domains of life: eukaryotes, prokaryotes and achaea. This means that the sequences were present within the progenitor of these domainsa common ancestor.
"Because we can recognize these universally-conserved sequences, we take that to mean that they were established early on in evolution," Wollenzien said. Because the sequences were established very early on, it indicates a great importance for the basic functions of life.
Evolution influences the emerging field of biochemistry with something called "Instant Evolution."
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Darwin peering through the molecular level
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