Electrophoretic studies suggest that negatively charged neural proteins are a general feature of jawed vertebrates. In an
apparent example of this, teleost fish express three aldolase isozymes, one of which is expressed predominantly in neural
tissues and is more negatively charged than its more generally expressed paralogues. We characterized three aldolase isozymes
from a single species of teleost fish, zebrafish (Danio rerio). These sequences indicated that the correlation of net negative
charge and neural expression suggested in other species by gel electrophoresis was supported by sequence analysis. When aldolase
sequences from the databases were included in phylogenetic analyses, the negative charge/neural expression phenomenon was
observed across the gnathostome vertebrate sequences examined. We found no evidence for a period of positive Darwinian selection
resulting in an accumulation of negatively charged amino acids during the evolution of the neural aldolase isozymes. This
is likely attributable, however, to limitations associated with the age of the duplication responsible for the neural isozyme
and the reconstruction of ancestral sequences.