Physicochemical properties of Planorbis corneus erythrocruorin

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Abstract
The erythrocruorin from the snail Planorbis corneus had a sedimentation coefficient, s020,w, of 33.5 ± 0.31S, and a molecular weight of 1.65 × 10(6) ± 0.04 × 10(6) by high-speed sedimentation-equilibrium ultracentrifugation. The amino acid composition and absorption spectrum of the protein are reported. A very low number of half-cystine residues was found, corresponding to 0.4 residue per haem group. The haem content was 2.76 ± 0.22%, corresponding to a protein molecular weight of about 22300. Under both acid and alkaline conditions partial dissociation took place to yield mixtures of products that could not be identified. A subunit corresponding to that containing one haem group was not obtained under any of the dossociating conditions tried. Electron microscopy revealed a ring-shaped molecule about 12.2 ± 0.5 nm in diameter. The native erythrocruoerin bound O2 co-operatively, the intermediate value of h in Hill plots having values between 1.7 and 3.4 depending on the conditions.