China
Africa
Explore chapters and articles related to this topic
Antarctic Marine Biodiversity: Adaptations, Environments and Responses to Change
Published in S. J. Hawkins, A. J. Evans, A. C. Dale, L. B. Firth, I. P. Smith, Oceanography and Marine Biology, 2018
Haemoglobin has been known as a component of animal blood, and associated with oxygen transport since the mid-nineteenth century (Hoppe-Seyler 1864, Fenn & Rahn 1964). Myoglobin has been recognised as important in oxygen relations in vertebrate muscles for over 50 years and was one of the first molecules to have its 3-dimensional structure elucidated using X-ray diffraction techniques (Kendrew et al. 1958). Two other members of the superfamily of globins have recently been identified in vertebrates: neuroglobin, which is present in the central and peripheral components of the nervous system; and cytoglobin, which is present in all major tissues. Both were discovered by the same team around the turn of the century (Burmester et al. 2000, 2002). The functions of these molecules remain to be fully elucidated, but neuroglobin probably has at least some oxygen delivery or scavenging related role, as it confers protection from hypoxic neuronal injury in vitro and ischaemic cerebral injury in vivo in mice (Sun et al. 2001, Greenberg et al. 2008).
Electron paramagnetic resonance of globin proteins – a successful match between spectroscopic development and protein research
Published in Molecular Physics, 2018
Sabine Van Doorslaer, Bert Cuypers
Finally, several different globins may co-exist in one species. The genome of the small nematode Caenorhabditis elegans codes for no less than 33 globins that are all transcribed [15]. For a long time, it was assumed that myo- and haemoglobin were the only globins present in humans (and in extension in mammals). However, in 2000, a hexacoordinate globin called neuroglobin was discovered in the human brain [16]. In 2001, another hexacoordinate globin, cytoglobin (Cygb), was reported to be expressed in most vertebrate tissues and organs [17]. Finally, a chimeric globin, androglobin (Adgb), was discovered in 2012 and is predominantly expressed in mammalian testes [18].