Evolution
The remarkable diversity and distribution of AFPs suggest the different types evolved recently in response to sea level glaciation occurring 1-2 million years ago in the Northern hemisphere and 10-30 million years ago in Antarctica. This independent development of similar adaptations is referred to as convergent evolution. There are two reasons why many types of AFPs are able to carry out the same function despite their diversity:
- Although ice is uniformly composed of oxygen and hydrogen, it has many different surfaces exposed for binding. Different types of AFPs may interact with different surfaces.
- Although the five types of AFPs differ in their primary sequence of amino acids, when each folds into a functioning protein, they may share similarities in their three dimensional or tertiary structure that facilitates the same interactions with ice.
Read more about this topic: Antifreeze Protein
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