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Enzyme Function Prediction from Amino Acid Sequence: How AI is Leading the Way

New AI tool 'CLEAN' predicts enzyme functions from amino acid sequences, even for unstudied or poorly understood enzymes.

An innovative artificial intelligence program called CLEAN (contrastive learning–enabled enzyme annotation) has the ability to predict enzyme activities based on their amino acid sequences, even if the enzymes are unfamiliar or inadequately understood. The researchers have reported that CLEAN has surpassed the most advanced tools in terms of precision, consistency, and sensitivity. However, a deeper understanding of enzymes and their roles would be beneficial in a number of disciplines, including genetics, chemistry, pharmaceuticals, medicine, and industrial materials.

The scientists are using the protein language to forecast their performance, similar to how ChatGPT uses written language data to generate predictive phrases. Almost all scientists desire to comprehend the purpose of a protein as soon as they encounter a new protein sequence. Furthermore, this tool will aid researchers in promptly recognizing the suitable enzymes needed to manufacture chemicals and materials for various applications, be it in biology, medicine, or industry.

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Rosy bonnet mushroom, Mycena rosea Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany

diatom- any member of a large group comprising several genera of algea, specifically microalgea, found in oceans, waterways, and soils of the world. there's something beautiful about the little details of the world.

the Guardian

Volcanic microbe eats CO2 ‘astonishingly quickly’, say scientists

Discovery of carbon-capturing organism in hot springs could lead to efficient way of absorbing climate-heating gas

A microbe discovered in a volcanic hot spring gobbles up carbon dioxide “astonishingly quickly”, according to the scientists who found it.

The researchers hope to utilise microbes that have naturally evolved to absorb CO2 as an efficient way of removing the greenhouse gas from the atmosphere. Ending the burning of fossil fuels is critical in ending the climate crisis, but most scientists agree CO2 will also need to be sucked from the air to limit future damage.

The new microbe, a cyanobacteria, was discovered in September in volcanic seeps near the Italian island of Vulcano, where the water contains high levels of CO2. The researchers said the bug turned CO2 into biomass faster than any other known cyanobacteria.

In February the team also explored hot springs in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, US, where levels of CO2 are even higher. Those results are now being analysed. The researchers said all their data on microbes would be published and made available to other scientists as a database that pairs DNA sequences with banked samples of the bacteria.

Dr Braden Tierney, at Weill Cornell Medical College and Harvard Medical School, said: “Our lead collaborator at Harvard isolated this organism that grew astonishingly quickly, compared to other cyanobacteria.”

“The project takes advantage of 3.6bn years of microbial evolution,” he said. “The nice thing about microbes is that they are self-assembling machines. You don’t have that with a lot of the chemical approaches [to CO2 capture].”

The new microbe had another unusual property, Tierney said: it sinks in water, which could help collect the CO2 it absorbs.

But the microbe was not a silver bullet, Tierney said. “There really isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution to climate change and carbon capture. There will be circumstances where the tree is going to outperform microbes or fungi. But there will also be circumstances where you really want a fast-growing aquatic microbe that sinks,” he said. That might include large, carbon-capturing ponds, he said. The microbe might also be able to produce a useful bioplastic.

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Mushrooms releasing spores into the wind. Captured by Paul Stamets

Stemonitis sp.

photo source-The MacroClub Project (Myxomycetes)

Slime Mold