Our research project is to determine the evolutionary relationship between a series of mammals (caribou (leg), bear, deer (leg), elk (leg), and moose) and a bird (chicken (leg)) by comparing the skeletal muscle proteins they have and to use the information we gain to create a phylogenetic tree.
For our experiment, we are determining the relationship between the six species we have chosen and comparing a number of muscle proteins they have, such as actin and myosin. This will result in similarities between the species, and we will use these similarities to determine their evolutionary relationship because the more similarities in protein bands result in the most closely related the organisms are. The article I found "New Titin Isoforms in Skeletal Muscles of Mammals," discusses titin which is a protein that is found in the skeletal and cardiac muscles of mammals and if found tightly bound to myosin filaments. They discuss in the article that it is assumed that titin has multiple functions related to the sarcomere, like, stabilization of structure and regulation of muscle contraction. It is also assumed that titin isoforms may be involved in the control of gene expression and protein turnover. The experiment discussed was analyzing different muscles within ground squirrels, along with in .soleus of rabbit, rat, and human to determine the physiological role of titin isoforms in the different muscle samples by the sizes of the protein bands. They concluded that titin isoforms that are shorter increased muscle stiffness whereas, larger titin isoforms decreased muscle stiffness.
The difference from their experiment and ours is that they are looking at a specific protein among mammals only and we are looking at skeletal muscle proteins of mammals and a bird to determine the evolutionary relationship between the organisms. This article could help, as it will provide information on a specific protein found in mammals exclusively which will, in turn, help us if we are able to see a band for this protein because a bird should not have this same protein band. With the help of this article determining the band size of titin, it can result another explanation for the phylogenetic tree we create at the end of this project.
Reference:
Vikhlyantsev I, Podlubnaya Z, Kozlovskaya I. 2004. New Titin Isoforms in Skeletal Muscles of Mammals. Doklady Biochemistry & Biophysics [Internet]. [cited 10 Feb 2017];395(1-6):111-113. Available from: http://web.a.ebscohost.com.edmonds.idm.oclc.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=b56a7086-2123-4b77-8b32-abf0ed897ddd%40sessionmgr4006&vid=1&hid=4107
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