Biomedical subjects
V M Sarich
Publications and source records attributed to V M Sarich.
Pinniped origins and the rate of evolution of carnivore albumins.
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Immunological time scale for hominid evolution.
Several workers have observed that there is an extremely close immunological resemblance between the serum albumins of apes and man. Our studies with the quantitative micro-complement fixation method confirm this observation. To explain the closeness of the resemblance, previous workers suggested that there has been a slowing down of albumin evolution since the time of divergence of apes and man. Recent evidence, however, indicates that the albumin molecule has evolved at a steady rate. Hence, we suggest that apes and man have a more recent common ancestry than is usually supposed. Our calculations lead to the suggestion that, if man and Old World monkeys last shared a common ancestor 30 million years ago, then man and African apes shared a common ancestor 5 million years ago, that is, in the Pliocene era.
Rates of albumin evolution in primates.
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Quantitative immunochemistry and the evolution of primate albumins: micro-complement fixation.
Quantitative micro-complement fixation was used to compare human serum albumin with the serum albumins of apes, monkeys, and prosimians. The results are consistent with those obtained by other immunological techniques, and they are consistent with the accepted phylogenetic position of these groups. The method requires much less antigen and antibody is more sensitive to small differences in albumin structure. A large scale survey of species differences in protein structure is possible with less than a milliliter of antiserum.
A molecular link between the bats of New Zealand and South America.
Along with the kiwis (Apteryx), tuatara (Sphenodon) and leiopelmatid frogs, the now rare lesser short-tailed bat (Mystacina tuberculata), one of only two species in the endemic family Mystacinidae, has long been viewed as one of New Zealand's archaic, mystery vertebrates, and has presented taxonomists with a major puzzle since its first description in 1843 (ref. 3). We report here the results of immunological comparisons involving the albumin and transferrin of Mystacina which indicate that its closest phylogenetic affinities are with the New World phyllostomoids--noctilionids, mormoopids and phyllostomoids. We estimate the separation between the Noctilio and Mystacina lineages to have occurred about 35 Myr ago.