Amino acid sequence of a myoglobin from lace monitor lizard, Varanus varius, and its evolutionary implications.

Myoglobin was purified from a muscle extract of lace monitor lizard, Varanus varius, by Sephadex G-75, followed by DEAE-cellulose column chromatography. The apomyoglobin was cleaved with cyanogen bromide. The largest fragment was further digested with pepsin, trypsin, and alpha-chymotrypsin. From the amino acid sequence of the cyanogen bromide fragments, together with those of tryptic peptides of apomyoglobin, the complete amino acid sequence of lizard myoglobin was deduced. To investigate the tetrapod and amniote origins, many possible phylogenetic trees were constructed using the myoglobin sequences, including those of map turtle and lace monitor lizard. The tree that requires the minimum number of nucleotide substitutions in their genes for the myoglobin sequences to have evolved from a common ancestor was different from the similarly most parsimonious trees for cytochrome c or for alpha-hemoglobin. The trees were different from each other and from the tree that best reflects current biological opinions.