title: Protamines in plant sperm.
abstract: Sperm protamines have been isolated from representatives of three major plant groups: algae (Chara corallina ), bryophytes ( Marchantia polymorpha), and ferns ( Marsilea vestitia ). We previously reported the complete displacement of histones by protamines in Marchantia (Reynolds W F & Wolfe, S L, Exp cell res 116 (1978) 269 [8] ). Marchantia protamines appear as four components on acid-urea gels, whereas Chara and Marsilea protamines comigrate as a single band with a mobility comparable to salmon protamine. The amino acid compositions of the plant protamines show these to be arginine-rich, highly basic (35-42%) proteins which display overall similarity in amino acid composition (84-91%). The molecular weights of Chara and Marsilea protamines are approx. 4700-5300 D.
mesh_terms: D000596:Amino Acids / Q000032:analysis; D004587:Electrophoresis, Agar Gel; D008970:Molecular Weight; D010944:Plants / Q000378:metabolism*; D011479:Protamines / Q000378:metabolism*; D012639:Seeds / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D000596:Amino Acids; D011479:Protamines