Inferring evolution of fish proteins: the globin case study

Because hemoglobins (Hbs) of all animal species have the same heme group, differences in their properties, including oxygen affinity, electrophoretic mobility, and pH sensitivity, must result from the interaction of the prosthetic group with specific amino acid residues in the primary structure. For this reason, fish globins have been the object of extensive studies in the past few years, not only for their structural characteristics but also because they offer the possibility to investigate the evolutionary history of Hbs in marine and freshwater species living in a large variety of environmental conditions. For such a purpose, phylogenetic analysis of globin sequences can be combined with knowledge of the phylogenetic relationships between species. In addition, Type I functional-divergence analysis is aimed toward predicting the amino acid residues that are more likely responsible for biochemical diversification of different Hb families. These residues, mapped on the three-dimensional Hb structure, can provide insights into functional and structural divergence.