title: Ferritin from the spleen of the Antarctic teleost Trematomus bernacchii is an M-type homopolymer.
abstract: Ferritin from the spleen of the Antarctic teleost Trematomus bernacchii is composed of a single subunit that contains both the ferroxidase center residues, typical of mammalian H chains, and the carboxylate residues forming the micelle nucleation site, typical of mammalian L chains. Comparison of the amino-acid sequence with those available from lower vertebrates indicates that T. bernacchii ferritin can be classified as an M-type homopolymer. Interestingly, the T. bernacchii ferritin chain shows 85.7% identity with a cold-inducible ferritin chain of the rainbow trout Salmo gairdneri. The structural and functional properties indicate that cold acclimation and functional adaptation to low temperatures are achieved without significant modification of the protein stability. In fact, the stability of T. bernacchii ferritin to denaturation induced by acid or temperature closely resembles that of mesophilic mammalian ferritins. Moreover iron is taken up efficiently and the activation energy of the reaction is 74.9 kJ.mol(-1), a value slightly lower than that measured for the human recombinant H ferritin (80.8 kJ.mol(-1)).
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemical Sciences and CNR, Center of Molecular Biology, University of Rome La Sapienza, Italy.
authors.forename: Guiseppina
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Mignogna
authors.forename: Roberta
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Chiaraluce
authors.forename: Valerio
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Consalvi
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cavallo
authors.forename: Simonetta
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Stefanini
authors.forename: Emilia
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Chiancone
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001704:Biopolymers / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism*; D005293:Ferritins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism*; D005399:Fishes; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011487:Protein Conformation; D011489:Protein Denaturation; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence; D013154:Spleen / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D001704:Biopolymers; D005293:Ferritins