Hsp90 and Evolution

 
The SciPhu blog has an interesting series of posts on the chaperone Hsp90 and it's effect on evolution. Here's the list of article with the links.

My contribution to JustScience 2008 will be a review on a protein with the potential to transform evolution theory as we know it today. The review will be divided into 5 separate blog posts:

1. Introduction to Hsp90 and evolution (this post)
2. Presenting the Hsp90 protein
3. How can chaperones act in evolution
4. Evidence for Hsp90 involvement in rapid evolution of new traits
5. Summary

I don't agree with the main conclusion that Hsp90 has an important role in evolution but the case is well presented. Anyone who wants to know more about hopeful monsters should read these articles.

UPDATE: My comment above may be misinterpreted. Sciphu may be right about "hopeful monsters" but he's dead wrong to confuse punctuated equilibria and macromutations. He makes the same mistake that others routinely make [Macromutations and Punctuated Equilibria].

We often criticize the creationists for misunderstanding punctuated equilibria and confusing it with the lack of transitional fossils. I think we should be just as hard on evolutionists who make the same mistake.

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The figure shows the structures of Hsp90 from yeast, dog, human and E. coli [HSP90 Structure]