In apparent contrast to most other tissues, the ocular lenses in vertebrates show striking differences in protein composition between taxa, most notably in the recruitment of different enzymes as major structural proteins. This variability appears to be the result of at least partially neutral evolutionary processes, although there is also evidence for selective modification in molecular struct...

The ontogeny of the lens crystallin antigens throughout development of three marine cephalopod embryos, Loligo vulgaris, Sepia officinalis and Octopus vulgaris has been investigated using the indirect immuno-cytochemical staining against respective homologous anti-total lens protein antiserum. The cellular mechanism of lens development appears to be the same in all species investigated and so d...

PURPOSE A recent study demonstrated the presence of protein-protein interactions among lens crystallins in a mammalian cell two-hybrid system assay and speculated about the significance of these interactions for protein solubility and lens transparency. The current study extends those findings to the following crystallin genes involved in some congenital cataracts: CRYAA (R116C), CRYAB (R120G),...