Biopolymers from Marine Invertebrates. XIII. Characterization of an Antibacterial Protein, Dolabellanin A, from the Albumen Gland of the Sea Hare, Dolabella auricularia.

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Abstract
An antibacterial factor, dolabellanin A, was purified from the albumen gland of a sea hare, Dolabella auricularia. Purified dolabellanin A was a glycoprotein of 250 kilodaltons consisting of 4 subunits, and showed both antibacterial and antineoplastic activities. The two activities were lost in parallel on heating and at low and high pH. This factor was half-maximally active for gram-positive and -negative bacteria at 0.018-0.48μg/ml, and its action was not bactericidal but bacteriostatic. Dolabellanin A did not induce morphological elongation of bacteria or the release of adenosine triphosphate, but it completely inhibited the syntheses of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid by E. coli within 6 min. These results suggest that dolabellanin A, which is found in a marine invertebrate, the sea hare, is a new antibacterial protein, and that it exerts its action by inhibiting nucleic acid synthesis, as does a DNA-inhibiting chemotherapeutic drug.

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