Lens crystallins: gene recruitment and evolutionary dynamism.
In a novel evolutionary process, enzymes and stress proteins have undergone direct gene recruitment as eye lens crystallins in a number of independent events. This may have allowed a dynamic response to changing visual environment during evolution. In spite of their diversity, many crystallins may share an origin in essential developmental processes such as cell elongation.
Wistow
G
G
Section on Molecular Structure and Function, LMBD, National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892.
D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D005075:Biological Evolution; D003459:Crystallins / Q000235:genetics*; D015870:Gene Expression; D006360:Heat-Shock Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D007908:Lens, Crystalline / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000166:cytology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016385:TATA Box
D003459:Crystallins; D006360:Heat-Shock Proteins