Acaenoplax--polychaete or mollusc?
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An oligomeric arginase with a molecular weight of 205000 is present in the intestinal tissues of the polychaete annelid Pista pacifica. The presence of an active subunit with a molecular weight of 34000 was demonstrated. The enzyme specificity, effect of thiol reagents on activity, kinetic properties of the intact enzyme and the active subunit were investigated. Treatment of the arginase with EDTA results in its dissociation into an inactive subunit; the active oligomeric structure can be regenerated by addition of Mn(2+). The correlation of characteristics of arginase from a certain species and that species, mode of nitrotelism is discussed.
Adenylate deaminase (AMP aminohydrolase, EC 3.5.4.6) from lugworm (Arenicola cristata) body-wall muscle was partially purified by extraction in KCl solutions and chromatography on phosphocellulose. Enzyme activity was eluted from the column at two salt concentrations. Both forms show co-operative binding of AMP (Hill coefficient, h, 2.85) with s0.5 values of 20 mM and 15.6 mM. ATP and ADP act as positive effectors lowering h to 1.07 and s0.5 to 2mM. The apparent Ka (activation) for ATP was 1.5mM. GTP is an inhibitor with an apparent Ki of 0.12 mM. In vivo the ATP-activated adenylate deaminase is in the active form and may be regulated by changes in GTP concentrations. Adenylate deaminase may act as a primary ammonia-forming enzyme in ammonotelic marine invertebrates with the purine nucleotide cycle.
1. Axoplasm from Myxicola contains two major polypeptides associated with neurofilaments, together with actin, tubulin and many minor polypeptide components. 2. Some of the minor polypeptides with molecular weights between 140,000 and 50,000 purify with neurofilaments under a variety of conditions and they appear to represent an integral part of the filament structure. 3. Peptide fingerprinting shows that the two major neurofilament polypeptides are almost identical. The fingerprint patterns from these major polypeptides share features with those obtained from the minor components. 4. Peptide fingerprinting has enabled us to propose a scheme for the main sites at which papain cleaves the major neurofilament polypeptides. In addition fingerprinting indicates how the minor components are related to the major polypeptides. 5. It is suggested that many of the minor neurofilament polypeptides could arise by proteolysis in vivo.
1. When axoplasm is incubated with [32P]Pi the main phosphorylated components are the neurofilament polypeptides. 2. Activation with Ca2+ of the proteinase present in axoplasm causes degradation of these neurofilaments and the peptides produced by this reaction have been analysed by fingerprinting. 3. Fingerprinting shows that initially the Ca2+-activated proteinase cleaves the neurofilament polypeptides at three major sites producing polypeptides with mol.wts. 70,000, 50,000 and 47,000. 4. These polypeptides sediment with filaments, originate from the tail-region of the molecule and contain a little radioactive label. 5. As these polypeptides are produced, other polypeptides that come from the head-region of the molecule are liberated as soluble products that contain the bulk of the radioactivity. 6. Fingerprinting therefore shows that at least two regions on the molecule are phosphorylated and that the major one is located towards the head-end of the polypeptides.
The myoglobin of the polychaete annelid Ophelia bicornis was isolated, purified to homogeneity and characterized. The primary structure, obtained from cDNA and protein sequencing, consists of 139 amino acid residues. The alignment with other globin sequences showed that O. bicornis myoglobin misses the pre-A helix and the first six residues of the A helix. The presence of a PheB10-GlnE7 haem distal residue pair is in agreement with the measured oxygen affinity (P50=0.85 mmHg; 1 mmHg=0.133 kPa) and the only slightly higher autoxidation rate constant (0.28 h(-1)) with respect to that of the sperm whale myoglobin mutant E7 His-->Gln (0.21 h(-1)) and to elephant myoglobin (0.1 h(-1)). Oxygen-binding co-operativity was found to be absent under all the examined experimental conditions. The resistance of O. bicornis myoglobin towards autoxidation seems to confirm the important role of part of the A helix in the stability of the globin. The higher pKa of the acid-alkaline ferric transition of O. bicornis with respect to Asian elephant myoglobin, as well as the higher absorbance ratio of its ferric form to the oxy form measured in the Soret region (gammamet/gammaoxy) with respect to that of the African elephant myoglobin, suggested a stronger interaction between the distal glutamine and the water molecule at the sixth co-ordinate position.
The coelomic haemoglobin of Glycera dibranchiata is known to be separable into monomeric and higher-Mr fractions. Although exhibiting homogeneity with respect to Mr, the extent of haemoglobin heterogeneity for the monomer fraction has never been adequately assayed. In the present paper we demonstrate that there exists in the monomer haemoglobin fraction reproducibly detectable heterogeneity regardless of the presence or absence of proteinase inhibitors during the isolations. These results show that, considered on the same time scale as previous preparations used for amino acid sequencing, crystallography and kinetics, the monomer haemoglobin fraction is highly heterogeneous. Application of ion-exchange chromatography and ion-filtration methods resulted in the isolation of four resolvable haem protein components from the Glycera monomer haemoglobin fraction. Three of these components were isolated in sufficient quantity to employ proton n.m.r. as a successful analytical tool for discriminating the individual haemoglobins. These results are not surprising. Several previous studies indicated less extensive heterogeneity in the monomer fraction. Moreover, the ability of the Glycera monomer haemoglobin to bind oxygen at even quite low partial pressures has been attributed to functional diversity originating in multiple haemoglobin components. The present work reveals the extent of the haemoglobin heterogeneity. The results show that it is more extensive than previously believed. Examination of this monomer fraction is particularly important, since crystallography indicates that one of the components of the monomer fraction lacks the E-7 (distal) histidine residue. As a consequence, the identification of such extensive heterogeneity is important to many previously published ligand-binding studies.
The five major components of the monomeric haemoglobin from Glycera dibranchiata were separated and characterized by absorption spectroscopy, isoelectric focusing, azide-binding affinities and nitrosyl autoreduction kinetics. The differences found among the components are discussed in terms of haem-pocket variations. In addition, the Fourier-transform i.r. spectra of pooled monomeric haemoglobin carbonyl (HbmCO) and the major component carbonyl are reported. The c.d. spectra of the carbonyl and azide derivatives of the five components are compared and found to be similar. The c.d. spectra of myoglobin(II) carbonyl [Mb(II)CO] and of apomyoglobin (apoMb) reconstituted with a symmetric synthetic iron porphyrin carbonyl, meso-tetra-(p-carboxyphenyl)porphinatoiron(II) carbonyl [TCPPFe(II)CO], are compared with the c.d. spectra of pooled HbmCO and its TCPPFe(II)CO analogue. HbmTCPPFe(II)CO shows a negative Soret c.d. band whereas MbTCPPFe(II)CO produces both a negative and a positive Soret c.d. band. Displacement of the symmetric porphyrin by 8-anilinonaphthalene-1-sulphonate and the resulting fluorescence emission are reported.
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AIMS: The objective of the present work was to describe an aerobic, mesophilic and heterotrophic marine bacterium, designated HYD657, able to produce an exopolysaccharide (EPS). It was isolated from a East Pacific Rise deep-sea hydrothermal vent polychaete annelid. METHODS AND RESULTS: This micro-organism, on the basis of the phenotypical features and genotypic investigations, can be clearly assigned to the Alteromonas macleodii species and the name A. macleodii subsp. fijiensis biovar deepsane is proposed. Optimal growth occurs between 30 and 35 degrees C, at pH between 6.5 and 7.5 and at ionic strengths between 20 and 40 g x l(-1) NaCl. The G + C content of DNA was 46.5%. This bacterium excreted, under laboratory conditions, an EPS consisting of glucose, galactose, rhamnose, fucose and mannose as neutral sugars along with glucuronic and galacturonic acids and a diacidic hexose identified as a 3-0-(1 carboxyethyl)-D-glucuronic acid. Its average molecular mass was 1.6 x 10(6) Da. CONCLUSIONS: The bacterium HYD657, for which the name A. macleodii subsp. fijiensis biovar deepsane is proposed, produces an unusual EPS in specific medium. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: Due to its interesting biological activities, applications have been found in cosmetics. Its probable contribution to the filamentous microbial mat in the Alvinella pompejana microenvironment can be also mentioned.
The structure of calerythrin, a prokaryotic 20 kDa calcium-binding protein has been determined by solution NMR spectroscopy. Distance, dihedral angle, J coupling, secondary chemical shift, residual dipolar coupling and radius of gyration restraints reveal four EF-hand motifs arranged in a compact globular structure. A tight turn in the middle of the amino acid sequence brings the two halves, each comprising a pair of EF-hands, close together. The structural similarity between calerythrin and the eukaryotic sarcoplasmic calcium-binding proteins is notable.
The cDNA and deduced amino-acid sequences for dimeric and octameric isoforms of creatine kinase (CK) from a protostome, the polychaete Chaetopterus variopedatus, were elucidated and then analysed in the context of available vertebrate CK sequences and the recently determined crystal structure of chicken sarcomeric mitochondrial CK (MiCK). As protostomes last shared a common ancestor with vertebrates roughly 700 million years ago, observed conserved residues may serve to confirm or reject contemporary hypotheses about the roles of particular amino acids in functional/structural processes such as dimer/octamer formation and membrane binding. The isolated cDNA from the dimeric CK consisted of 1463 nucleotides with an open reading frame of 1116 nucleotides encoding a 372-amino-acid protein having a calculated molecular mass of 41.85 kDa. The percentage identity of C. variopedatus dimeric CK to vertebrate CK is as high as 69%. The octameric MiCK cDNA is composed of 1703 nucleotides with an open reading frame of 1227 nucleotides. The first 102 nucleotides of the open reading frame encode a 34-amino-acid leader peptide whereas the mature protein is composed of 375 amino acids with a calculated molecular mass of 42.17 kDa. The percentage identity of C. variopedatus MiCK to vertebrate CK is as high as 71%. This similarity is also evident in residues purported to be important in the structure and function of dimeric and octameric CK: (a) presence of seven basic amino acids in the C-terminal end thought to be important in binding of MiCK to membranes; (b) presence of a lysine residue (Lys110 in chicken MiCK) also thought to be involved in membrane binding; and (c) presence of a conserved tryptophan thought to be important in dimer stabilization which is present in all dimeric and octameric guanidino kinases. However, C. variopedatus MiCK lacks the N-terminal heptapeptide present in chicken MiCK, which is thought to mediate octamer stabilization. In contrast with vertebrate MiCK, polychaete octamers are very stable indicating that dimer binding into octamers may be mediated by additional and/or other residues. Phylogenetic analyses showed that both octamer and dimer evolved very early in the CK lineage, well before the divergence of deuterostomes and protostomes. These results indicate that the octamer is a primitive feature of CK rather than being a derived and advanced character.