Oxygen transport proteins: III. Structural studies of the scorpion (Buthus sindicus) hemocyanin, partial primary structure of its subunit Bsin1

Structure and Characterization of Eriphia verrucosa Hemocyanin

Arthropod hemocyanins (Hcs) are a family of large extracellular oxygen-transporting proteins with high molecular mass and hexameric or multi-hexameric molecular assembly. This study reports for the first time the isolation and characterization of the structure of an arthropod hemocyanin from crab Eriphia verrucosa (EvH) living in the Black Sea. Its oligomeric quaternary structure is based on different arrangements of a basic 6 × 75 kDa hexameric unit, and four of them (EvH1, EvH2, EvH3, and EvH4) were identified using ion-exchange chromatography. Subunit 3 (EvH3) shows high similarity scores (75.0, 87.5, 91.7, and 75.0 %, respectively) by comparison of the N-terminal sequence of subunit 1 from Cancer pagurus of the North Sea (Cp1), subunits 3 and 6 of Cancer magister (Cm3 and Cm6), and subunit 2 of Carcinus aestuarii (CaSS2), respectively. Moreover, a partial cDNA sequence (1309 bp) of E. verrucosa hemocyanin encoding a protein of 435 amino acids was isolated. The deduced amino acid sequence shows a high degree of similarity with subunits 3, 4, 5, and 6 of C. magister (81-84 %). Most of the hemocyanins are glycosylated, and three putative O-linkage sites were identified in the partial amino acid sequence of EvH at positions 444-446, 478-480, and 547-549, respectively. The higher stability of native Hc in comparison to its subunit EvH4 as determined by circular dichroism (CD) could be explained with the formation of a stabilizing quaternary structure.

Structure of hemocyanin from garden snail Helix lucorum

Hemocyanins are giant extracellular oxygen carriers in the hemolymph of many molluscs and arthropods with different quaternary structure. They are represented in the hemolymph of molluscs with one, two or three isoforms, as decameric, didecameric, multidecameric and tubules aggregates. We describe here the structure of the hemocyanin Helix lucorum (HlH), species in the series of molluscan hemocyanins. In contrast with other molluscan hemocyanins, three different hemocyanin isopolypeptides were isolated from the hemolymph of the garden snail H. lucorum, named as beta-HlH, alpha(D)-HlH and alpha(N)-HlH. Their molecular masses were determined by size exclusion chromatography to be 1068 kDa (beta-HlH) and 1079 kDa (alpha(D)-HlH, and alpha(N)-HlH). Native HlH exhibits a predominant didecameric structure as revealed by electron microscopy and additionally few tridecamers are shown in the electron micrographs of HlH resulting from the association of a further decamer with one didecamer. The three isoforms are represented mainly as homogeneous didecamers, but they have different behaviour after dissociation and reassociation in the pH-stabilizing buffer, containing 20 mM CaCl(2). All isoforms were reassociated into didecamers and tubules with different length, but in contrast to alpha(D)-HlH isoform, longer tubules were observed in beta-HlH. Moreover the structure of beta-HlH was analysed after limited proteolysis with trypsin followed by FPLC and HPLC separation of the cleavage products. Eight different functional units were identified by their N-terminal sequences and molecular masses. The protein characteristics, including UV absorption at 340 nm, fluorescence and CD spectra of the native molecule and its units confirmed the structure of multimer protein complexes.

Structure and stability of arthropodan hemocyanin Limulus polyphemus

In the hemolymph of many arthropodan species, respiratory copper proteins of high molecular weight, termed hemocyanins (Hcs) are dissolved. In this communication, we report on the protein stability of different hemocyanin species (Crustacea and Chelicerata) using fluorescence spectroscopy. Five to seven major electrophoretically separable protein chains (structural subunits) were purified by fast protein liquid chromatography (FPLC) ion exchange chromatography from different hemocyanins with very high sequence homology of the active site regions binding copper ions (CuA and CuB), and especially the relative sequence positions of histidine (His) and tryptophan (Trp) residues of these protein segments are in all cases identical. The conformational stabilities of the native dodecameric aggregates and their isolated structural subunits towards various denaturants (pH and guanidine hydrochloride (Gdn.HCl)) indicate that the quaternary structure is stabilized by hydrophilic and polar forces, whereby both, the oxy- and apo-forms of the protein are considered. These two classes of Crustacea and Chelicerata Hcs have the similar Trp-fluorescence quantum yields, but different values of lambda(max) emission (about 325 and 337 nm, respectively). Differences in the quantum yields are observed of the oxy- and apo-forms, which must be attributed to the fluorescence quenching effect of the two copper ions (CuA and CuB) in the active site. The position of emission maximum indicates tryptophan side chains are situated in a non-polar environment. Denaturation studies of Hcs by Gdn.HCl indicate that the denaturation process consists of two steps: dissociation of the native molecule into its structural subunits and denaturation of the subunits at concentrations >1.5M Gdn.HCl. Two steps of denaturation are also observed after keeping the protein in buffer solutions at different pH values with different pH-stability for holo-oxy and apo-Hc forms.