Species Distribution
Cytochrome c is a highly conserved protein across the spectrum of species, found in plants, animals, and many unicellular organisms. This, along with its small size (molecular weight about 12,000 daltons), makes it useful in studies of cladistics. Its primary structure consists of a chain of about 100 amino acids. Many higher order organisms possess a chain of 104 amino acids.
The cytochrome c molecule has been studied for the glimpse it gives into evolutionary biology. Both chickens and turkeys have identical sequence (amino acid for amino acid), whereas ducks possess molecules differing by one amino acid. Similarly, both humans and chimpanzees have the identical molecule, while rhesus monkeys share all but one of the amino acids: the 66th amino acid is isoleucine in the former and threonine in the latter. Pigs, cows and sheep also share identical cytochrome c molecules.
Read more about this topic: Cytochrome C
Famous quotes containing the words species and/or distribution:
“As kings are begotten and born like other men, it is to be presumed that they are of the human species; and perhaps, had they the same education, they might prove like other men. But, flattered from their cradles, their hearts are corrupted, and their heads are turned, so that they seem to be a species by themselves.... Flattery cannot be too strong for them; drunk with it from their infancy, like old drinkers, they require dreams.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)
“In this distribution of functions, the scholar is the delegated intellect. In the right state, he is, Man Thinking. In the degenerate state, when the victim of society, he tends to become a mere thinker, or, still worse, the parrot of other men’s thinking.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)