Multimeric hemoglobin of the Australian brine shrimp Parartemia

The hemoglobin molecule of the commercially important brine shrimp Artemia sp. has been used extensively as a model for the study of molecular evolution. It consists of nine globin domains joined by short linker sequences, and these domains are believed to have originated through a series of duplications from an original globin gene. In addition, in Artemia, two different polymers of hemoglobin, called C and T, are found which differ by 11.7% at the amino acid level and are believed to have diverged about 60 MYA. This provides a set of data of 18 globin domain sequences that have evolved in the same organism. The pattern of amino acid substitution between these two polymers is unusual, with pairs of equivalent domains displaying differences of up to 2.7-fold in total amino acid substitution. Such differences would reflect a similar range of molecular-clock rates in what appear to be duplicate, structurally equivalent domains. In order to provide a reference outgroup, we sequenced the cDNA for a nine-domain hemoglobin (P) from another genus of brine shrimp, Parartemia zietziana, which differs morphologically and ecologically from Artemia and is endemic to Australia. Parartemia produces only one hundredth the amount of hemoglobin that Artemia produces and does not upregulate production in response to low oxygen partial pressure. Comparison of the globin domains at the amino acid and DNA levels suggests that the Artemia globin T gene has accumulated substitutions differently from the Parartemia P and Artemia C globin genes. We discuss the questions of accelerated evolution after duplication and possible functions for the Parartemia globin.