How can the zebrafish help us to understand alpha crystallin?
The structural and functional studies on zebrafish -crystallins described above provide a foundation for two future research pursuits. First, these data can be used as a baseline for future comparative studies. While comparison of zebrafish and human -crystallins can help us to understand structure/function relationship, it is not a suitable comparison for determining the physiological selection pressures that have impacted -crystallin evolution. The large evolutionary distance between bony fishes and humans makes such conclusions difficult. Furthermore, limiting comparative studies to two species does not allow you to assess the polarity of any evolutionary changes (Garland and Adolph, 1994). Study of additional -crystallins from groups of closely related bony fishes can identify the effects of different environmental conditions and physiological change on -crystallin evolution. Well-developed phylogenies for many bony fish taxa are available for these comparative studies. Furthermore
