Are lungfish living fossils? Observation on the evolution of the opioid/orphanin gene family.
This minireview considers the possibility that there is a correlation between the slow rate of morphological change and speciation events that has been occurred within the lungfish lineage since the Permian period, and the apparent slow rate of divergence in the amino acid sequences of lungfish opioid precursor sequences. The status of lungfish as "living fossils" is considered.
Lee
Jenny
J
Division of Cardiology, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver, CO 80262, USA.
Alrubaian
Jasem
J
Dores
Robert M
RM
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005399:Fishes / Q000235:genetics*; D005580:Fossils; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D018847:Opioid Peptides / Q000235:genetics*; D010802:Phylogeny; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D000097629:Nociceptin
D018847:Opioid Peptides; D000097629:Nociceptin