Study analyzes 400 million years of enzyme evolution

08/14/2025

Three-dimensional shape of the yeast fungal enzyme Erg11, generated with AlphaFold2. Erg11 is inhibited by azoles, a specific class of antifungal drugs. If Erg11 changes, the fungus can develop a tolerance to the drugs.

Enzymes accelerate chemical reactions in organisms - without them, life would not be possible. Prof. Toni Goßmann from the Department of Biochemical and Chemical Engineering at TU Dortmund University is also involved in the publication.

Researchers at Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin have now used artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze the laws of their evolution on a large scale.
In the journal Nature, they describe which enzyme areas change comparatively quickly and which remain practically unchanged over time. The findings are relevant for the development of new antibiotics, for example.

You can find the full article here:

To the paper (nature) To the TU Dortmund University press release To the Charité press release

Back