Structure of Fish Serum Albumins

Data are presented about the presence of serum albumins in fish of different classes and orders inhabiting different ecological conditions, about structure of typical albumins and albumin-like proteins, and about the degree of homology of these proteins to mammalian albumins. There is shown a wide spectrum of structural diversity of albumins in Pisces due to their participation in osmotic, plastic, and transport functions under conditions of environment and the organism internal media. Detection of similar motifs in the fish and mammalian albumin genes allows uniting these genes into one superfamily and considering vertebrate albumins the homologous proteins. DOI: 10.1134/S0022093010020018