AMINO-ACID-SEQUENCE OF MYOGLOBIN FROM THE CHITON LIOLOPHURA-JAPONICA AND A PHYLOGENETIC TREE FOR MOLLUSCAN GLOBINS

Myoglobin was isolated from the radular muscle of the chiton Liolophura japonica, a primitive archigastropodic mollusc. Liolophura contains three monomeric myoglobins (I, II, and III), and the complete amino acid sequence of myoglobin I has been determined. It is composed of 145 amino acid residues, and the molecular mass was calculated to be 16,070 D. The E7 distal histidine, which is replaced by valine or glutamine in several molluscan globins, is conserved in Liolophura myoglobin. The autoxidation rate at physiological conditions indicated that Liolophura oxymyoglobin is fairly stable when compared with other molluscan myoglobins. The amino acid sequence of Liolophura myoglobin shows low homology (11-21%) with molluscan dimeric myoglobins and hemoglobins, but shows higher homology (26-29%) with monomeric myoglobins from the gastropodic molluscs Aplysia, Dolabella, and Bursatella. A phylogenetic tree was constructed from 19 molluscan globin sequences. The tree separated them into two distinct clusters, a cluster for muscle myoglobins and a cluster for erythrocyte or gill hemoglobins. The myoglobin cluster is divided further into two subclusters, corresponding to monomeric and dimeric myoglobins, respectively. Liolophura myoglobin was placed on the branch of monomeric myoglobin lineage, showing that it diverged earlier from other monomeric myoglobins. The hemoglobin cluster is also divided into two subclusters. One cluster contains homodimeric, heterodimeric, tetrameric, and didomain chains of erythrocyte hemoglobins of the blood clams Anadara, Scapharca, and Barbatia. Of special interest is the other subcluster. It consists of three hemoglobin chains derived from the bacterial symbiont-harboring clams Calyptogena and Lucina, in which hemoglobins are supposed to play an important role in maintaining the symbiosis with sulfide bacteria.