Abstract
THE oligomeric protein haemerythrin is an oxygen-transport pigment found in erythrocytes of the coelomic fluid of certain invertebrates. It usually occurs as an octamer of molecular weight 108,000, in which each sub-unit contains two Fe atoms and reversibly binds one O2 molecule1. There is convincing evidence that myohaemerythrin, a monomeric protein found in the retractor muscles of the sipunculan worm Themiste pyroides, and the protomers of haemerythrin have quite similar tertiary structures2,3. Consequently, the low resolution structure obtained for myohaemerythrin4 has been used to solve the structure of octameric haemerythrin by molecular search techniques.
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WARD, K., HENDRICKSON, W. & KLIPPENSTEIN, G. Quaternary and tertiary structure of haemerythrin. Nature 257, 818–821 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1038/257818a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/257818a0
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