Abstract
A superfamily of proteins often conserves a common structural scaffold but develops diverse biochemical and biological functions during evolution. The understanding of evolutionary mechanisms responsible for this diversity is of fundamental importance not only in structural genomics but also in nature-guided drug design. A superfamily of peptides with a conserved CSalphabeta structural motif provides a considerably intriguing example to approach such an issue. The peptides from this superfamily have wide origins, ranging from plants to animals, and exhibit diverse biological activities, varying from a sweet-tasting protein to antibacterial defensins and animal toxins targeting ion channels. This review describes the phylogenetic distribution and structural classifi cation of this unique scaffold and provides new insights into its functional diversity from the perspective of sequence, structure and evolution.