Origins of metamorphism in XCL1

In a study published in Science on January 1, 2021, Dishman et al. resurrected ancestors of the metamorphic chemokine, XCL1, and found that metamorphism arose in the XCL1 lineage ~150 million years ago. A zigzagging evolutionary path suggests that the metamorphic properties provide a functional advantage and reveals three design principles that could be used for design of other fold switching proteins.

XCL1 Reversibly Adopts a Dimeric All-ß Sheet Fold and a Monomeric chemokine-like Fold.