Prehistoric proteins: Raising the dead
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“The oestrogen receptor achieves this by binding substances that contain a chemical structure called an aromatized A ring. Because oestrogens are the only steroid hormones to have such a ring, that criterion was enough to ensure that the receptor bound only oestrogens for many millions of years. Until, that is, the chemical industry started pumping out hundreds of substances containing such aromatized rings, which the oestrogen receptor unwittingly bound. “The endocrine disrupters are taking advantage, unfortunately, of the promiscuity that is the result of the evolutionary history of receptors,” Thornton says.”
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Prehistoric proteins: Raising the dead
http://www.nature.com/news/prehistoric-proteins-raising-the-dead-1.10261