Hemoglobin Cranston, an unstable variant having an elongated beta chain due to nonhomologous crossover between two normal beta chain genes.

An asymptomatic woman was found to have a compensated hemolytic state due to an unstable hemoglobin variant, comprising 35% of the total. Peptide maps of tryptic digests of the abnormal beta chain were identical to those of beta A except that tryptic peptide 15 (Tyr-His-COOH) was absent and a new peptide was detected, containing equivalent amounts of Ser, Ile, Thr, and Lys. Its sequence was determined by manual Edman degradation. An additional hydrophobic peptide isolated by counter-current distribution contained: Asx, Ser, Ala, Tyr, 2 Phe, and 3 Leu. Its sequence was determined on an automatic solid phase sequencer. Digestion with carboxypeptidase A confirmed the C-terminal sequence. Hemoglobin Cranston has an elongated beta chain with the following structure: (see article). This variant is the first "adult" human hemoglobin known to contain isoleucine. It is likely that hemoglobin Cranston arose because of a nonhomologous crossover of two normal beta chain genes, probably during meiosis, with the insertion of two nucleotides (AG) at position 144, resulting in a frame shift. Hemoglobin Cranston provides new information on the structure of the beta chain gene as well as an explanation of both the structure and genetic basis of hemoglobin Tak, the only other elongated beta chain variant that has been described.