Michael Manhart

Protein homeostasis imposes a barrier on functional integration of horizontally transferred genes in bacteria

This study shows that protein homeostasis limits the functional integration of horizontally transferred genes in bacteria by reducing the abundance of foreign proteins, and that this barrier can be overcome through evolutionary adaptation.

Scaling properties of evolutionary paths in a biophysical model of protein adaptation

The paper develops scaling relations to quantify how coarse-graining affects evolutionary paths in fitness landscapes, applying them to a biophysical model of protein adaptation.

Protein folding and binding can emerge as evolutionary spandrels through structural coupling

The paper shows how protein folding and binding can evolve as spandrels, even without fitness benefits, through structural coupling and random mutations.