Evolution of hemoglobin in primates and other therian mammals

Abstract

1. 1. Phylogenetic trees of twenty-seven alpha and thirty-four betalike mammalian hemoglobin chains and thirty-seven vertebrate globin chains were constructed from amino-acid sequence data. 2. 2. Highlighting the phyletic closeness of African apes to man, the trees provided detailed information on patterns of globin-gene evolution among mammals. 3. 3. Ancestral amino-acid sequences were deduced and mutation distances from branching points in the mammalian beta and alpha trees to descendant sequences calculated. 4. 4. Less alpha and beta change in the descent of higher primates than other mammals was demonstrated and possible selective mechanisms discussed.