Comparative analysis of C16orf8-related genes in pufferfish and human.

(A) C16orf8 homologs found in the pufferfish α- and αβ-loci, and the human cytoglobin locus on chromosome 17, were aligned with the C16orf8 gene of the human α-globin locus10 and visualized with the VISTA program. Because of the large size of the first intron, the alignment starts near exon 2. The graphs depict homologies between 50% and 100%. (B) Homology distance matrix of the proteins encoded by theC16orf8 homologues of pufferfish and human. FLJ22341 on human chromosome 17 has an N-terminal truncation. Therefore, the matrix was calculated using the part that all 4 proteins have in common—that is, aa 208 to 855 of FLJ22357; aa 1 to 619 of FLJ22341; aa 210 to 855 of the pufferfish α-locus homologue, and aa 212 to 855 of the pufferfish αβ-locus homologue.