Divergence of Parartemia and Artemia heamoglobin genes

Abstract

Parartemia is a genus of brine shrimp endemic to Australia which is related to the more widespread and economically important Artemia sp. The expression of a multimeric haemoglobin molecule in Artemia is well documented but in Parartemia only trace levels of a possible haemoglobin have been observed. In this paper we describe the DNA sequence of a domain of a haemoglobin molecule in Parartemia. The derived amino acid sequence suggests that the possible date of divergence about 85 million years ago of the two genera predates the divergence of the C and T polymers of Artemia haemoglobin. This date would correlate with the physical and temporal isolation of Australia in the late Mesozoic