JBC, Vol. 251, Issue 19, 5875-5880, Oct, 1976
X-ray and functional studies of hemoglobins Nancy and Cochin-Port-Royal
A. Arnone
The mutations in hemoglobin Nancy beta145(HC2) Tyr leads to Asp and
hemoglobin Cochin-Portal-Royal beta146(HC3) His leads to Arg involve
residues which are thought to be essential for the full expression of
allosteric action in hemoglobin. Relative to the structure of
deoxyhemoglobin A, our x-ray study of deoxyhemoglobin Nancy shows severe
disordering of the beta chain COOH-terminal tetrapeptide and a possible
movement of the beta heme iron atom toward the plane of the porphyrin ring.
These structural perturbations result in a high oxygen affinity, reduced
Bohr effect, and lack of cooperatively in hemoglobin Nancy. In the presence
of inositol hexaphosphate (IHP), the Hill constant for hemoglobin Nancy
increases from 1.1 to 2.0. But relative to its action on hemoglobin A, IHP
is much less effective in reducing the oxygen affinity and in increasing
the Bohr effect of hemoglobin Nancy. This indicates that IHP does not
influence the R in equilibrium T equilibrium as much in hemoglobin Nancy as
in hemoglobin A, and this probably is due to the disordering of His 143beta
which is known to be part of the IHP binding site. IHP is also known to
produce large changes in the absorption spectrum of methemoglobin A, but we
find that it has no effect on the spectrum of methemoglobin Nancy. In
contrast to the large structural changes in deoxyhemoglobin Nancy, the
structure of deoxyhemoglobin Cochin-Port-Royal differs from deoxyhemoglobin
A only in the position of the side chain of residue 146beta. The
intrasubunit salt bridge between His 146beta and Asp 94beta in
deoxyhemoglobin A is lost in deoxyhemoglobin Cochin-Portal-Royal with the
guanidinium ion of Arg 146beta floating freely in solution. This small
difference in structure results in a reduced Bohr effect, but does not
cause a change in the Hill coefficient, the response to
2,3-diphosphoglycerate, or the oxygen affinity at physiological pH.