UH scientists discover oldest ancestors of hemoglobin
By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer
A team of University of Hawai'i scientists has discovered the earliest known ancestors of hemoglobin, which brings science closer to identifying the earliest life forms to use oxygen.
The research, led by microbiologist Maqsudul Alam, also may aid in the search for blood substitutes.
Alam's Manoa team, in conjunction with scientists at the Maui High Performance Computing Center and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, has discovered two oxygen-laden proteins in single-celled microbes. The proteins, called protoglobins, evolved to transport and release oxygen in the toxic environment of a primordial earth.
The findings will appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in an online "Early Edition" this week and also will be posted on the National Science Foundation's main Web page. The research was supported by a four-year, $500,000 grant from NSF.
The discovery has received attention in prominent Europe and Asia-based journals.
Alam's team includes Tracey Freitas, lead author for the published paper, who began working with Alam's team as an undergraduate seven years ago. Freitas receives his master's degree this summer.
"We are especially pleased that the work has involved science students from Hawai'i from the very beginning," said Alam.
Other members of the team are Shaobin Hou and Jennifer Saito. James Newhouse is the computational chemist and liaison on Maui.
According to the NSF Web site announcing the findings, Alam's research group found the two primitive protoglobins in two different species of the microbe archaea.
The ability to use oxygen for respiration allowed life to vastly diversify, said the NSF Web site, adding that the impact was more fundamental than the evolutionary transitions organisms made adapting from sea to land, from the ground to the air or from crawling to standing upright.
Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8013.
