Lateral transfer of a lectin-like antifreeze protein gene in fishes.

ABSTRACT: Fishes living in icy seawater are usually protected from freezing by endogenous antifreeze proteins (AFPs) that bind to ice crystals and stop them from growing. The scattered distribution of five highly diverse AFP types across phylogenetically disparate fish species is puzzling. The appearance of radically different AFPs in closely related species has been attributed to the rapid, independent evolution of these proteins in response to natural selection caused by sea level glaciations within the last 20 million years. In at least one instance the same type of simple repetitive AFP has independently originated in two distant species by convergent evolution. But, the isolated occurrence of three very similar type II AFPs in three distantly related species (herring, smelt and sea raven) canno

SUBMITTER: Graham LA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2440524 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature