Gene cooption and convergent evolution of oxygen transport hemoglobins in jawed and jawless vertebrates.

ABSTRACT: Natural selection often promotes evolutionary innovation by coopting preexisting genes for new functions, and this process may be greatly facilitated by gene duplication. Here we report an example of cooptive convergence where paralogous members of the globin gene superfamily independently evolved a specialized O(2) transport function in the two deepest branches of the vertebrate family tree. Specifically, phylogenetic evidence demonstrates that erythroid-specific O(2) transport hemoglobins evolved independently from different ancestral precursor proteins in jawed vertebrates (gnathostomes) and jawless fish (cyclostomes, represented by lamprey and hagfish). A comprehensive phylogenetic analysis of the vertebrate globin gene superfamily revealed that the erythroid hemoglobins of cyclostomes

SUBMITTER: Hoffmann FG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2922537 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature