Decoding Structural Evolution. MATLAB Based Analysis of Ramachandran Plots in Hemoproteins

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2025 in the subject Chemistry - Other, grade: 10, , language: English, abstract: This study investigates the evolutionary relationships among twelve animal species through an in-depth analysis of their hemoglobin protein structures. Using secondary structure data and FASTA sequences obtained from the Protein Data Bank (PDB), this research applies Ramachandran plot analysis and MATLAB-based phylogenetic tree construction to explore protein structural and sequence similarities. The Ramachandran plots were employed to categorize dihedral angles into specific conformational regions, providing a comparative framework across the species. Phylogenetic trees were then generated from both angular distributions and sequence alignments to assess whether structural similarities correspond with evolutionary relationships. Our findings reveal certain inconsistencies between sequence-based and structure-based evolutionary groupings, suggesting that structural adaptations in hemoglobin may not strictly follow sequence evolution pathways. This work offers insights into the complex relationship between protein structure and evolutionary adaptation, with implications for understanding protein function diversity across species.