“…During the last years, UCP gene sequences were also found in birds (Vianna et al, 2001;Hirabayashi et al, 2005;Talbot et al, 2004), ectothermic vertebrates, such as frog (Xenopus octopus; Klein et al, 2002), carp (Ciprinus carpio) and zebrafish (Danio rerio; Stuart et al, 1999), insects (Drosophila melanogaster; Fridell et al, 2004) and in the primitive eukaryotic organism Caenorhabditis elegans (CeUCP, Accession number AAB54239). UCP has also been identified in mitochondria from Acanthamoeba castellanii , Dictyostelium discoideum , Candida parapsilosis (CpUCP, Jarmuszkiewicz et al, 2000), Candida albicans (Cavalheiro et al, 2004), and in trophozoites of the malaria parasite Plasmodium Berghei (Uemura et al, 2000). The existence of UCPs in protozoa, fungi, plants, insects, and fishes suggests that uncoupling proteins emerged early during evolution as a distinct member of the mitochondrial anion carrier family (MACF), probably before the divergence of plant, animal, and fungi kingdoms.…”