AlphaFold2 Deciphers Enzyme Evolution

Researchers at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin have harnessed the power of AlphaFold2 AI to conduct a large-scale analysis of enzyme evolution. Enzymes are vital catalysts for chemical reactions in living organisms. The team successfully identified which parts of enzymes change rapidly and which remain constant over time.

To determine the principles of enzyme evolution, researchers compared the three-dimensional shapes of numerous enzymes. Using AlphaFold2, they calculated the shapes of nearly 10,000 enzymes in mere months. They analysed almost 11,300 enzymes, including approximately 1,300 3D structures previously predicted and made public using AlphaFold2, focusing on enzymes from yeasts.

These findings could be relevant to the development of new antibiotics. AlphaFold2, celebrated as a breakthrough in 2020, predicts an enzyme's 3D structure from its amino acid sequence with exceptional accuracy. Its developers were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry last year.