The sulphide-binding protein that occurs in high concentrations in the vascular blood and coelomic fluid of the hydrothermal vent tube-worm Riftia pachyptila Jones is the haemoglobin. Sulphide binding does not occur at the oxygen-binding sites of the haem, but may occur via thiol-disulphide exchange at the interchain disulphide bridges on the macromolecule. We have confirmed the report that vascular blood is heterogeneous for two haemoglobins (FI and FII) that are different in Mr, but we conclude that the coelomic fluid is homogeneous for the lower Mr haemoglobin FII, in the intact, living animal. These two haemoglobins occur naturally in the living animals, and FII is not a dissociation product of the higher Mr FI. The sulphide-binding capacities of the two haemoglobin species differ by about a factor of two. Consequently, the vascular blood and the coelomic fluid also have different sulphide-binding capacities. These differences in sulphide-binding capacity may have important ramifications for the physiology of this unusual animal.
JOURNAL ARTICLE|
01 March 1987
The Sulphide-Binding Protein in the Blood of the Vestimentiferan Tube-Worm, Riftia Pachyptila, is the Extracellular Haemoglobin
ALISSA J. ARP,
ALISSA J. ARP
1Marine Biology Research Division, A-002, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA; Department of Biology, San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94132, USA
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JAMES J. CHILDRESS,
JAMES J. CHILDRESS
2Oceanic Biology Group, Department of Biology and Marine Science Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
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RUSSELL D. VETTER
RUSSELL D. VETTER
3Marine Biology Research Division, A-002, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
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ALISSA J. ARP
1Marine Biology Research Division, A-002, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA; Department of Biology, San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94132, USA
JAMES J. CHILDRESS
2Oceanic Biology Group, Department of Biology and Marine Science Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
RUSSELL D. VETTER
3Marine Biology Research Division, A-002, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
Accepted:
02 Oct 1986
Online Issn: 1477-9145
Print Issn: 0022-0949
© 1987 by Company of Biologists
1987
J Exp Biol (1987) 128 (1): 139–158.
Article history
Accepted:
02 Oct 1986
Citation
ALISSA J. ARP, JAMES J. CHILDRESS, RUSSELL D. VETTER; The Sulphide-Binding Protein in the Blood of the Vestimentiferan Tube-Worm, Riftia Pachyptila, is the Extracellular Haemoglobin. J Exp Biol 1 March 1987; 128 (1): 139–158. doi: https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.128.1.139
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