The crayfish plasma clotting protein: A vitellogenin-related protein responsible for clot formation in crustacean blood
Open Access
- 2 March 1999
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
- Vol. 96 (5), 1965-1970
- https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.96.5.1965
Abstract
Coagulation in crayfish blood is based on the transglutaminase-mediated crosslinking of a specific plasma clotting protein. Here we report the cloning of the subunit of this clotting protein from a crayfish hepatopancreas cDNA library. The ORF encodes a protein of 1,721 amino acids, including a signal peptide of 15 amino acids. Sequence analysis reveals that the clotting protein is homologous to vitellogenins, which are proteins found in vitellogenic females of egg-laying animals. The clotting protein and vitellogenins are all lipoproteins and share a limited sequence similarity to certain other lipoproteins (e.g., mammalian apolipoprotein B and microsomal triglyceride transfer protein) and contain a stretch with similarity to the D domain of mammalian von Willebrand factor. The crayfish clotting protein is present in both sexes, unlike the female-specific vitellogenins. Electron microscopy was used to visualize individual clotting protein molecules and to study the transglutaminase-mediated clotting reaction. In the presence of an endogenous transglutaminase, the purified clotting protein molecules rapidly assemble into long, flexible chains that occasionally branch.Keywords
This publication has 33 references indexed in Scilit:
- Characterization of a clotting protein, isolated from plasma of the freshwater crayfish Pacifastacus leniusculusJBIC Journal of Biological Inorganic Chemistry, 1993
- The coagulation cascade: initiation, maintenance, and regulationBiochemistry, 1991
- Basic local alignment search toolJournal of Molecular Biology, 1990
- The amino-terminal sequence of lobster fibrinogen reveals common ancestry with vitellogeninsBiochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, 1990
- The molecular basis of blood coagulationCell, 1988
- TransglutaminasesAnnual Review of Biochemistry, 1980
- A Rapid and Sensitive Method for the Quantitation of Microgram Quantities of Protein Utilizing the Principle of Protein-Dye BindingAnalytical Biochemistry, 1976
- A rapid and sensitive method for the quantitation of microgram quantities of protein utilizing the principle of protein-dye bindingAnalytical Biochemistry, 1976
- Cleavage of Structural Proteins during the Assembly of the Head of Bacteriophage T4Nature, 1970
- Regulation of glutamine synthetase. XII. Electron microscopy of the enzyme from Escherichia coliBiochemistry, 1968