Purification and primary identification of haemocyanin in the Chinese shrimp, Fenneropenaeus chinensis (Decapoda, Penaeoidea)

We here report the isolation of haemocyanin, the crustacean oxygen transporter, from the haemolymph of the Chinese shrimp, Fenneropenaeus chinensis. We employed a Superdex 75 column, and the purified protein was demonstrated as homogeneous by Native-PAGE. The molecular mass of the purified haemocyanin was estimated to be 450 kDa using SDS-PAGE. The subsequent 2-DE suggested that it would be composed of three different subunits of 75-76 kDa each. Primary structure determination was performed by LC-ESI-MS and the data obtained were compared with the NCBI database. The result showed that these three subunits are identical to a partial fragment of haemocyanin from Litopenaeus vannamei. This research could be relevant to obtain pure haemocyanin, and will be helpful for further study on the structure and function of this large molecule.