Although many descriptions of adaptive molecular evolution of vertebrate he
moglobins (Hb) can be found in physiological text books, they are based mai
nly on changes of the primary structure and place more emphasis on conserva
tion than alterations at the functional site. Sequence analysis alone, howe
ver, does not reveal much about the evolution of new functions in proteins
It was found recently that there are many functionally important structural
differences between human and a ray (Dasyatis akajei) I FD even where sequ
ence is conserved between the two. We have solved the structures of the deo
xy and CO forms of a second cartilaginous fish (a shark, Mustelus griseus)
Hb, and compared it with structures of human Hb, two bony fish Hbs and the
ray Hb in order to understand more about how vertebrate Hbs have functional
ly evolved by the selection of random amino acid substitutions. The sequenc
e identity of cartilaginous fish Hb and human Hb is a little less than 40 %
, with many functionally important amino acid replacements. Wider substitut
ions than usually considered as neutral have been accepted in the course of
molecular evolution of Hb. As with the ray Hb, the shark Hb shows function
ally important structural differences from human Hb that involve amino acid
substitutions and shifts of preserved amino acid residues induced by subst
itutions in other parts of the molecule. Most importantly, beta E11Val in d
eoxy human Hb, which overlaps the ligand binding site and is considered to
play a key role in controlling the oxygen affinity, moves away about 1 A in
both the shark and ray Hbs. Thus adaptive molecular evolution is feasible
as a result of both functionally significant mutations and deviations of pr
eserved amino acid residues induced by other amino acid substitutions. (C)
2001 Academic Press.