Were protein internal repeats formed by "bricolage"?
Is evolution an engineer, or is it a tinkerer--a "bricoleur"--building up complex molecules in organisms by increasing and adapting the materials at hand? An analysis of completely sequenced genomes suggests the latter, showing that increasing repetition of modules within the proteins encoded by these genomes is correlated with increasing complexity of the organism.
DIBIT, Istituto Scientifico H. S. Raffaele, Via Olgettina 60, 20132 Milan, Italy. giovanni.lavorgna@hsr.it
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Boncinelli
D000818:Animals; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D006801:Humans; D020449:Repetitive Sequences, Amino Acid