rlp@cbosgd.UUCP (Bob Platt) (07/06/85)
The following table (from "Human Biology and Behavior" Little 1975) shows some interesting biochemical similarities among primates in their "beta hemoglobin chains." The table shows the amino acid located at each position in the chain (only the variable positions are shown). Differences from the human chain appear in upper-case: Position Species 5 6 9 13 21 22 33 50 56 76 80 87 104 125 ============ === === === === === === === === === === === === === === Human/Chimp pro glu ser ala asp glu val thr gly ala asn thr arg pro Gorilla pro glu ser ala asp glu val thr gly ala asn thr LYS pro Gibbon pro glu ser ala asp glu val thr gly ala ASP LYS arg GLN Rhesus monkey pro glu ASN THR asp glu LEU SER gly ASN asn GLN LYS GLN Squirrel monkey GLY ASP ALA ala GLU ASP val thr ASN THR asn GLN arg GLN A measure of the genetic distance between any two chains is the "minimum mutation distance" or MMD. This is the fewest number of mutations that will transform one chain into the other. The MMD can be calculated with the following table: N=nucleotide= < U | C | A | G > codon=genetic code word for an amino acid= NNN one mutation=change of one nucleotide in a codon First position Second position Third position U C A G U phe ser tyr cys U phe ser tyr cys C leu ser non non A leu ser non try G C leu pro his arg U leu pro his arg C leu pro gln arg A leu pro gln arg G A ile thr asn ser U ile thr asn ser C ile thr lys arg A met thr lys arg G G val ala asp gly U val ala asp gly C val ala glu gly A val ala glu gly G For example, if the gorilla's codon at 104 changes from AAA to AAG, this would amount to a change from lysine to argine. The MMD is then 1. Joe Knapp (cbosgd!nscs!jmk)