termine the three-dimensional folding: the extent of helical arrange
ment and determination of the spatial distribution of the amino acid
side chains. This distribution determines which residues will be avail
able for the intermolecular interactions responsible for subunit aggre
gation. Interchain interactions are physiologically important because
they form the basis of the interaction between the oxygen-binding sites
(hemes ) and so are responsible for the shape of the oxygen equilibrium
curve. Very little information on these subjects as yet exists for fsh
hemoglobins. The fact that many of them have oxygen equilibria
similar to those of mammalian hemoglobins suggests that the inter
actions between the subunits may be very similar. The amino acid
sequence is known for only two polypeptide chains : the e chain of the
carp (Hilse and Braunitzer, 1968) and one component from the lam
prey, Lampetra fuvitilis (Braunitzer and Fujiki, 1969 ). Fragmentary data
exist on the amino acid composition, NH2-terminal and COOH-terminal
residues for several other fsh hemoglobins.
Zuckerkandl et al. (1960), in a survey of the hemoglobins from a
wide variety of vertebrates, examined the tryptic peptide patterns
from four fsh: the sheepshead, Pimelometopon pulcher, the shark,
Cephaloscyllium uter, the South American lungfsh, Lepidosiren para
doxa, and the Pacifc hagfsh, Polistotrema stouti. They found that the
patterns for the four fsh difered among themselves much more than
the mammalian patterns and that the shark and sheepshead difered
as much from the lungfsh pattern as from the human pattern. They
concluded that no large soluble typtic peptide appeared to exist which
was unchanged throughout vertebrate evolution. Carp hemoglobin consists of three components (48, 48, and 4% )
which are of the form a�f2 (Hilse and Braunitzer, 1968 ). The a chain
appears to be the same for each component: almost no information
is as yet available on the f chain.o The NH� terminus of the a chain
is acetyl-serine; the NH� terminus of the f chain is valine. The a chain
COOH terminus is identical to that in the human a chain: -Tyr-Arg.
Acetylation of the NH2 terminus may be of some importance in oxygen
transport because this group may be partly responsible for the Bohr and
CO2 efects in mammalian hemoglobins (Hill and Davis, 1967; Perutz,
et al., 1969; Kilmartin and Rossi-Bernardi, 1969 ); an acetylated -NH2
group could not participate in the Bohr efect. Since several hemo
globins with acetylated NH2 termini do have Bohr efects, other
groups must be held responsible for the Bohr efect in these
hemoglobins.
Te carp a chain contains 142 residues-one more than in the
a chain of human hemoglobin. This chain length is the net result of two
insertions and one deletion, relative to the human a sequence (see
Fig. 3). The frst insertion, at position 46-47, occurs in a nonhelical
bend and is compensated by a deletion at position 57 in the
. The a, f nomenclature is appropriate here hecause the amino acid seqnence
of the a chain of the carp hemoglohin has been shown to be homologous with the
a chain of human hemoglobin. However, to avoid confusion, this designation of chains
should b used only where sufcient structural information exists to permit a rea
sonable decision concering homology. It is quite likely that some chains will be
found for which this will prove to be impossible. If so, some other designation will
be necessary. E helix" so that the distal heme-linked histidine occurs at exactly the
same position in each chain. This is important because the bound oxygen
molecule occupies the position between the heme iron and residue
number 58. The glycine deletion at position 57 puts all the critical
residues on the distal side of the heme in the sequence 552 in
register for both human and carp a chains. The other heme-linked
histidine is at position 87. A comparison of the homologous sequences
in this region (F helix ) shows that very little diference exists (see
Fig. 3). The segment of the F helix in the neighborhood of the heme
iron is remarkably similar in both human and carp a chains.
The other most critical regions of the hemoglobin molecule are
at the points of contact between the a and f subunits. The residues in
horse and human hemoglobin which make these contacts have been
determined by Perutz et aZ. (1968 ) from the results of their X-ray
difraction analysis. An a chain makes two diferent f-chain contacts
which are designated a!f2 and a,f1. Dissociation into dimers is be
lieved to involve cleavage primarily of the alf" bonds, but both contacts
are probably necessary for the cooperative interactions observed in the
oxygenation reaction. The homologous residues of the a chains from
The Homologous Residues of the Clf2 Contact Region from the
C Chain of Horse, Man, and Carp Compared with the
Corresponding Positions in Lamprey Hemoglobin"
Position Residues
Pe,idue No. Helix Horse Man Carp Lamprey
38 C3 Thr Thr Glu Ala'7
41 C6 Thr Thr Thr Glu50
42 C7 Tyr Tyr Tyr Phe5!
91 FG3 Leu Leu Leu Phe'07
92 FG4 Arg Arg Arg Gln108
93 FG; Val Val Val VaP09
94 Gl Asp Asp Asp Asp1l0
95 G2 Pro Pro Pro Prol11
96 G3 Val Val Ala Glnll
2
140 H23 Tyr Tyr Tyr Tyr146
" Thpse contact posi tions for the hpmoglohins of horse and man are those determined
by Pertltz l'l (/. (Hl6S). The corespo!l(l ing posit ions for carp and lamprey have been
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