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Myoglobin
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Diagram tracing the evolutionary history of globin genes from a single ancestral globin gene, with branching lines and dots marking gene duplication events over millions of years, leading to myoglobin and various hemoglobin genes on chromosomes 16 and 11. Diagram comparing two phylogenetic trees based on molecular changes: one tree shows evolutionary relationships among four species using myoglobin changes, and the other compares humans, rhesus monkeys, and horses using cytochrome c changes, with arrows and numbers indicating the amount of molecular change between branches.
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Myoglobin

protein
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Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
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Myoglobin, a protein found in the muscle cells of animals. It functions as an oxygen-storage unit, providing oxygen to the working muscles. It is found predominantly in striated muscle tissue, namely skeletal muscle and cardiac muscle. mammalssealswhales There is a close chemical similarity between myoglobin and hemoglobin, the oxygen-binding protein of red blood cells. Both proteins contain a molecular constituent called heme, which enables them to combine reversibly with oxygen. The heme group, which contains...

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