, the hemoglobin mainly distributes in the red blood cell ( kundu et al 2003 ; weber and fago 2004 ) .
structurally , each molecule of hemoglobin contains four globin chains and heme ( kundu et al 2003 ; weber and fago 2004 ) .
the four globin chains ( two alpha chains and two beta chains ) are depicted as a tetramer looking like  folded worms 
( kundu et al 2003 ; weber and fago 2004 ) . in the case of structurally abnormal hemoglobins ,
the following mechanisms can be possible : single nucleotide base substitutions leading to amino acid replacement or chain termination variants ; nucleotide deletions or additions leading to deletion and frameshift variants ; and nonhomologous crossing over , leading to the production of fused globin chains ( forget et al 1979 ) .
the molecular basis of the hemoglobinopathies , disorders characterized by absent or decreased synthesis of alpha- or beta - globin chains , is quite heterogeneous ( forget et al 1979 ) .
luckily , the new development in molecular bioinformatics can be applied in nanoscale genomics and proteomics research .
here , the author used a new gene ontology technology to predict the molecular function and biological process of four important hemoglobin disorders with single substitution .
the database , unitprot ( bairoch et al 2008 ) , was used for data mining of the amino acid sequence for normal hemoglobin .
the author performed a prediction of molecular function and biological process of normal and each abnormal hemoglobin using a novel gene ontology prediction tool namely gofigure by department of computer and information sciences , university of delaware , newark , usa ( khan et al 2008 ) .
gofigure is a computational algorithm tool which is recently developed for gene ontology study ( khan et al 2008 ) .
the tool accepts an input dna or protein sequence , and uses the basic local alignment search tool ( blast ) to identify homologous sequences in gene ontology annotated databases ( khan et al 2008 ) .
the purpose is to use a blast search to identify homologs in public databases that have been annotated with gene ontology terms ( khan et al 2008 ) .
these terms include : swissprot , flybase ( drosophila ) , the saccharomyces genome database ( sgd ) , mouse genome informatics ( mgi ) , and wormbase ( nematode ) ( khan et al 2008 ) .
the contents of the results include molecular function as well as biological process of the studied protein ( khan et al 2008 ) .
the database , unitprot ( bairoch et al 2008 ) , was used for data mining of the amino acid sequence for normal hemoglobin .
the author performed a prediction of molecular function and biological process of normal and each abnormal hemoglobin using a novel gene ontology prediction tool namely gofigure by department of computer and information sciences , university of delaware , newark , usa ( khan et al 2008 ) .
gofigure is a computational algorithm tool which is recently developed for gene ontology study ( khan et al 2008 ) .
the tool accepts an input dna or protein sequence , and uses the basic local alignment search tool ( blast ) to identify homologous sequences in gene ontology annotated databases ( khan et al 2008 ) .
the purpose is to use a blast search to identify homologs in public databases that have been annotated with gene ontology terms ( khan et al 2008 ) .
these terms include : swissprot , flybase ( drosophila ) , the saccharomyces genome database ( sgd ) , mouse genome informatics ( mgi ) , and wormbase ( nematode ) ( khan et al 2008 ) .
the contents of the results include molecular function as well as biological process of the studied protein ( khan et al 2008 ) .
the four studied important abnormal hemoglobins with single substitution included hb s , hb e , hb c , and hb j - baltimore .
summary of the mutation of each abnormal hemoglobin using gofigure server , the molecular function and biological process in normal and abnormal hemoglobin were predicted .
the molecular function and biological processes of normal hemoglobin and abnormal hemoglobin are similar , as presented in figure 1 .
the summary of the comparison of the molecular function and biological processes between normal and abnormal hemoglobin is presented in table 2 .
the four studied important abnormal hemoglobins with single substitution included hb s , hb e , hb c , and hb j - baltimore .
using gofigure server , the molecular function and biological process in normal and abnormal hemoglobin were predicted .
the molecular function and biological processes of normal hemoglobin and abnormal hemoglobin are similar , as presented in figure 1 .
the summary of the comparison of the molecular function and biological processes between normal and abnormal hemoglobin is presented in table 2 .
hemoglobin research reached a renaissance in recent few years due to the discovery of globins or their genes in all living organisms and in all tissues of higher animals ( kundu et al 2003 ; weber and fago 2004 ) .
new developments brought to a re - evaluation of our understanding of the structure and function of hemoglobins ( kundu et al 2003 ; weber and fago 2004 ) .
until now , the functional aberration due to the mutation in hemoglobin was not well demonstrated , and there is a need for improvement of our understanding on those mutated proteins function .
based on the recent advances in the genomics , current technologies can permit the examination of gene expression patterns of tens of thousands of genes ( bairoch et al 2008 ) .
a challenge for the biologist to interprete such data is recognizing the function of many of the hits identified in a single experiment ( khan et al 2008 ) .
while one can classically search the literature , a more rapid mean of developing some idea of potential function of a gene product is via the ontology terms that describe the gene ( khan et al 2008 ) .
many genes ontology tools have been constructed and launched for public usage . in this study ,
the author used a gene ontology tool to predict the function of normal and four important hemoglobin disorders with underlying single amino acid substitution .
compared with normal hemoglobin , all studied abnormal hemoglobins have the same function and biological process .
this indicates that the overall function of oxygen transportation is not disturbed in the studied hemoglobin disorders .
this result is similar to another report by wiwanitkit ( 2006 ) on four rare hemoglobinopathies , hb agrino ( 29leu-->pro ) , hb siam ( 15gly - > arg ) , hb amsterdam ( 32met-->ile ) and hb evanston ( 14 try-- > arg ) .
clinical findings of oxygen depletion in abnormal hemoglobins should be due to the other processes rather than genomics , proteomics and expression levels .
 hemoglobin is an important protein found in the red cells of many animals . in humans , 
 the hemoglobin is mainly distributed in the red blood cell . 
 single amino acid substitution is the main pathogenesis of most hemoglobin disorders . here 
 , the author used a new gene ontology technology to predict the molecular function and biological process of four important hemoglobin disorders with single substitution . 
 the four studied important abnormal hemoglobins ( hb ) with single substitution included hb s , hb e , hb c , and hb j - baltimore . using the gofigure server , the molecular function and biological process in normal and abnormal hemoglobins was predicted . 
 compared with normal hemoglobin , all studied abnormal hemoglobins had the same function and biological process . 
 this indicated that the overall function of oxygen transportation is not disturbed in the studied hemoglobin disorders . 
 clinical findings of oxygen depletion in abnormal hemoglobin should therefore be due to the other processes rather than genomics , proteomics , and expression levels . 
Introduction
Materials and methods
Obtaining the sequence
Prediction of molecular function and biological process
Results
Sequence of normal and abnormal hemoglobin
Prediction of molecular function and biological process
Discussion