The Evolution of Hemoglobin
By Ross Hardison
Studies of a very ancient protein suggest that changes in gene regulation are an important part of the evolutionary story
This Article From Issue
March-April 1999
Volume 87, Number 2
Page 126
DOI: 10.1511/1999.20.126
The appearance of atmospheric oxygen on earth between one and two billion years ago was a dramatic and, for the primitive single-celled creatures then living on earth, a potentially traumatic event. On the one hand, oxygen was toxic. On the other hand, oxygen presented opportunities to improve the process of metabolism, increasing the efficiency of life's energy-generating systems. Keeping oxygen under control while using it in energy production has been one of the great compromises struck in the evolution of life on earth.
Images courtesy of Max Perutz, Molecular Research Council, Cambridge, England.
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