Figure 4. Protein Reconstruction and Resurrection.

A) On the left, if DNA can be extracted and sequenced from ancient hominin or extinct non-human primate samples, then the amino acid sequences of ancient proteins can be inferred relatively directly based on gene coding region DNA sequences. On the right, if ancient genomes are unavailable, ancestral protein sequences can be reconstructed through computational analysis of sequences from extant species. B) The ancestral DNA sequence can then be synthesized and either inserted into an organism’s genome directly by genome editing to observe phenotypic effects or inserted into bacterial or mammalian cells in culture for experimental assays and characterization, either after extraction and purification of the protein or in the in vitro cell culture environment. Individual images: Shutterstock and Phylopic.