A comparative study of vertebrate eye lens crystallins using isoelectric focusing and densitometry.
1. The crystallin proteins of numerous species belonging to different classes of vertebrates have been studied. 2. Species-specific crystallin patterns are revealed which unequivocally characterize the different species. 3. A marked variability in the number and percentage of alpha-, beta- and gamma-crystallins were found in the various species. 4. The gamma-crystallin family, with a meagre number of common bands, has proved to be most representative of the species. The beta-crystallins, with their greater number of common bands, have been best preserved throughout vertebrate evolution. 5. From the similarity coefficient matrix a dendrogram is drawn up, a visual phylogenetic summary of the interrelationships between the vertebrates considered. 6. In the Discussion, other aspects are considered, such as lens morphology, functionality, animal age, post-synthetic modifications and genetic factors.
Basaglia
F
F
Institute of Comparative Anatomy, University of Ferrara, Italy.
Di Luca
D
D
D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D003459:Crystallins / Q000032:analysis*; D003720:Densitometry; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D007525:Isoelectric Focusing; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D013045:Species Specificity; D014714:Vertebrates / Q000378:metabolism*
D003459:Crystallins