hello,
for many times I read and investigate the protozoa life and ask is the enzymes and hormones similar to superior animals?
Some biomolecules of protozoa are the same as, or similar to, those of multicellular organisms (I wouldn't use the term "superior." At a cellular biochemical level, single-celled and multicellular eukaryotes have similar complexity), and others are different or highly divergent. Multicellular organisms such as vertebrates have biomolecules that function in cell-to-cell functions and in organs that are not present in single-celled organisms, of course. Could you be more specific?
Hi Rachid, I echo Adam's comment in that no animal is "superior".
Since we humans are descendant from previous organisms through evolution, it stands to reason that we share a lot of similarities in protein and hormone chemical structures with both vertebrates and invertebrates.
This is not a matter of debate. This is a fact.
Thank you very much sir but if really there is no differences so why all metabolic and detoxification reaction are not similar. I talk about insulin-like and other like hormones and enzymes
Thanks again
About humans are descendants from previous organism is other hand of debate.
Hi Rachid, I never said that there is no difference in how hormones and enzymes work cross species. There are differences and they are due to natural selection,
In this (rather old review) the presence of insulin like peptides and their evolution is traced:
http://www.biolbull.org/content/177/2/176.full.pdf
Papers that cite this review:
http://scholar.google.com/scholar?cites=14836903704751685818&as_sdt=20000005&sciodt=1,21&hl=en
Metabolic reactions are not similar between species. Simians (including humans) cannot synthesize vitamin C,
Most primates cannot metabolize lactose past their weaning years. Humans have acquired mutations that allow adults to express lactase so they can ingest dairy products life long.
Animals, including humans, lack the necessary enzymes to synthesize glucose from lipids.
I could go on. But do you have a specific hormone or enzyme in mind?
Hi Rachid,
Are you interested in identifying examples of similarities between enzymes and hormones of vertebrates and protozoa? I don't know about hormones, but there are many examples of enzymes and other proteins that are conserved in sequence and function, not only between eukaryotic protozoans and vertebrates, but even in some cases between prokaryotes and vertebrates. Enzymes of central metabolism (e.g. glycolysis and citric acid cycle) and oxidative phosphorylation come to mind. As another example, the basic mechanism of protein translation is the same, although the eukaryote ribosome is somewhat more complex. Having worked for quite a while on antibacterial drug discovery, I can testify to the difficulty of identifying enzymes in bacteria that are sufficiently different from those of humans to make them viable targets. It was not unusual to find that a compound that inhibited the bacterial enzyme also inhibited the human one. Obviously, the enzymes of eukaryotic protozoa are typically even more similar to those of humans, where the function is present in both. That's why discovering non-toxic antifungal drugs is so difficult, and why many of them target one pathway (ergosterol biosynthesis) that is absent in humans.
dear Steingrimur Stefansson and Adam B Shapiro, thank you very much for your answers and information, you are really a great scientists and always want to study from you.
for the evolution and human evolution I believe that the evolution is in same species not interspecies adaptation and new characters is the keys for all new findings.
thanks a lot and I hope to do a training period in your laboratories mr Shapiro.
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