Evolution
Serpins were initially believed to be restricted to eukaryote organisms, but have since been found in a number of bacteria and archaea. It remains unclear whether these prokaryote genes are the descendants of an ancestral prokaryotic serpin or the product of lateral gene transfer (genetic transfer between organisms not by evolutionary descent). Rawlings et al. showed that serpins are the most widely distributed and largest family of protease inhibitors.
Read more about this topic: Serine Protease Inhibitors
Famous quotes containing the word evolution:
“Historians will have to face the fact that natural selection determined the evolution of cultures in the same manner as it did that of species.”
—Konrad Lorenz (1903–1989)
“The more specific idea of evolution now reached is—a change from an indefinite, incoherent homogeneity to a definite, coherent heterogeneity, accompanying the dissipation of motion and integration of matter.”
—Herbert Spencer (1820–1903)
“The more specific idea of evolution now reached is—a change from an indefinite, incoherent homogeneity to a definite, coherent heterogeneity, accompanying the dissipation of motion and integration of matter.”
—Herbert Spencer (1820–1903)