The multi-hemoglobin system of the hydrothermal vent tube worm Riftia pachyptila. I. Reexamination of the number and masses of its constituents.

The deep-sea tube worm Riftia pachyptila Jones possesses a well developed circulatory system and a large coelomic compartment, both containing extracellular hemoglobins. Fresh vascular blood is heterogeneous and contains two different hemoglobins (V1 and V2), whereas the coelomic fluid is homogeneous and comprises only one hemoglobin (C1). Their molecular weights have been determined by scanning transmission electron microscopy mass mapping (STEM) and by multi-angle laser light scattering (MALLS). Both methods yielded approximately the same molecular weights with masses significantly higher than the literature data for V1. V1, V2, and C1 had Mr of 3396 +/- 540 x 10(3), 393 +/- 71 x 10(3), and 410 +/- 51 x 10(3) by STEM, and 3503 +/- 13 x 10(3), 433 +/- 8 x 10(3), and 380 +/- 4 x 10(3) by MALLS, respectively. Transmission electron micrographs of V1 are typical of an hexagonal bilayer hemoglobin (HBL Hb). When submitted to dilution or osmotic shock, V1 dissociates into halves and one-twelfth subunits like annelid HBL Hbs. V1 is resistant to urea treatment, indicating that hydrophobic interactions play a small role in its quaternary structure. Conversely, V1 Hb is rather unstable in solution without denaturant, a property which seems to be characteristic of vestimentiferan HBL Hbs and could be explained by an important number of hydrogen bonds.