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Biochemistry and evolutionary biology: Two disciplines that need each other

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Abstract

Biochemical information has been crucial for the development of evolutionary biology. On the one hand, the sequence information now appearing is producing a huge increase in the amount of data available for phylogenetic analysis; on the other hand, and perhaps more fundamentally, it allows understanding of the mechanisms that make evolution possible. Less well recognized, but just as important, understanding evolutionary biology is essential for understanding many details of biochemistry that would otherwise be mysterious, such as why the structures of NAD and other coenzymes are far more complicated than their functions would seem to require. Courses of biochemistry should thus pay attention to the essential role of evolution in selecting the molecules of life.

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Notes

  1. It would be tempting to assume that by ‘animal’, Geoffroy meant ‘mammal’, but in fact he meant it much more generally, recognizing, for example, similarities in anatomy between mammals, fish, birds and even insects and spiders (Stott 2012).

  2. This does not mean that no other histone structures could function, only that there is no possible evolutionary route to them.

  3. As discussed by Friedmann (2004), this aphorism is better known in various versions attributed to Monod, such as ‘Anything that is true of Escherichia coli must be true of elephants, only more so’.

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Acknowledgements

ACB and MLC acknowledge the support of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. JP acknowledges the intellectual motivation of many students during more than 20 years of teaching evolutionary biochemistry and origins of life at the University of Valencia, as well as the financial support for his research on symbiosis to the Spanish Mineco (grant BFU2012-39816-C02-01). The impetus for writing this article came from three sessions at the IUBMB-FEBS-SEBBM Congress in Seville in 2012, and we thank the organizers for facilitating our participation in these.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Unité de Bioénergétique et Ingénierie des Protéines, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Aix-Marseille Université, 31 chemin Joseph-Aiguier, 13402, Marseille Cedex 20, France

    Athel Cornish-Bowden & María Luz Cárdenas

  2. Departament de Bioquímica i Biologia Molecular, Institut Cavanilles de Biodiversitat i Biologia Evolutiva, Universitat de València, Valencia, Spain

    Juli Peretó

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  1. Athel Cornish-Bowden
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Correspondence to Athel Cornish-Bowden.

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[Cornish-Bowden A, Peretó J and Cárdenas ML 2014 Biochemistry and evolutionary biology: Two disciplines that need each other. J. Biosci. 39 1–15] DOI 10.1007/s12038-014-9414-3

This paper is dedicated to the memory of Professor Tito Ureta (1935–2012), in recognition of his great contributions to evolutionary biochemistry.

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Cornish-Bowden, A., Peretó, J. & Cárdenas, M.L. Biochemistry and evolutionary biology: Two disciplines that need each other. J Biosci 39, 13–27 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12038-014-9414-3

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