Cold-Driven Hemoglobin Evolution in Antarctic Notothenioid Fishes Prior to Hemoglobin Gene Loss in White-Blooded Icefishes.

ABSTRACT: Expression of multiple hemoglobin isoforms with differing physiochemical properties likely helps species adapt to different environmental and physiological conditions. Antarctic notothenioid fishes inhabit the icy Southern Ocean and display fewer hemoglobin isoforms, each with less affinity for oxygen than temperate relatives. Reduced hemoglobin multiplicity was proposed to result from relaxed selective pressure in the cold, thermally stable, and highly oxygenated Antarctic waters. These conditions also permitted the survival and diversification of white-blooded icefishes, the only vertebrates living without hemoglobin. To understand hemoglobin evolution during adaptation to freezing water, we analyzed hemoglobin genes from 36 notothenioid genome assemblies. Results showed that adaptation

SUBMITTER: Desvignes T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10651078 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature