Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) skin contains a novel kininogen and another cysteine proteinase inhibitor.

We describe the purification and characterization of two novel cysteine proteinase inhibitors found in Atlantic salmon skin. One of these, salmon kininogen, has a molecular mass of 52 kDa as determined by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight MS, is multiply charged with pI values of 4.0, 4.2 and 4.6 and shows homology to kininogens including the bradykinin motif. The other, salarin, has a molecular weight of 43 kDa, a pI of 5.1 and shows weak homology to cysteine proteinases. Both proteins are N- and O-glycosylated and inhibit papain and ficin but not trypsin.