Protamine composition

Except the protamines, the histones and the derivatives of the proteins, all the proteins contain carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, sulphur and oxygen, and they possess the following elementary composition —... 

In the present study, the polysaccharide alginic acid (AlA) with molecular weight (Mw) of 250 000 was chosen as a polyanion. The strong basic protein protamine sulfate (PtS) with Mw about 5000 was used as a polycation. The calcium carbonate matrices were successively employed as a core material because they dissolve in mild conditions and are non toxic. Our motivation to study this combination was to reach the more biocompatible shell composition. 

The study of fish proteins were initiated by the Swiss physiologist Miescher (1897), who first isolated the protamines from the sperm cells of various fishes as early as 1868. The relatively simple amino acid composition of these proteins and their pharmacological action have since promoted extensive researches, first of aU by Kossel and co-workers, whose important... 

From the time of Miescher and Kossel, few proteins have attracted as much interest as fish protamines. This is due to several factors their low molecular weight and simple chemical composition, their importance in the study of heredity, their use as precipitants in preparative protein chemistry, and their pharmacological action. These proteins are prepared from the cell nuclei of spermatozoa which are easily isolated from the milt (Felix et al., 1951). Herring testes have also been used recently (Felix and Krekels, 1953a). This material, however, is less favorable, for the isola-... 

While the physical characterization of these proteins is still very poor, their chemical composition is well known. Analyses carried out on herring protamine (clupein), on sturgeon protamine (sturine), and on protamines... 

Little progress has been made concerning the chemistry of the protamines since Synge reviewed the subject in 1943. However it would seem that much could be learnt from the application of the newer methods of peptide chemistry to these proteins, which from their amino acid composition and molecular weight appear to have a rather simple structure (see Tristram, 1949). 

Fish sperm contain nucleoprotamines. Upon treatment with sulfuric acid, the nucleoprotamines are reduced to nucleic acid and protamine sulfate. The chemically heterogeneous protamines of molar mass 2000-8000 thus obtained contain only a few different kinds of amino acid residues per molecule. They are relatively rich in basic amino acids, as the composition of the protamines clupeine and salmine shows (Table 29-6), and never contain cystine, aspartic acid, or tryptophan. The basic amino acids are responsible for the bonding of the protein to the nucleic acid component. 

Base Composition of Deoxyribonucleic Acid Associated with Protamine... 

The amino acid composition of homogeneous components of some protamines is described in Chaps. VII and VIII. 

Table IV-3. Amino-acid composition of some protamines... 

The biosynthetic development of protamine was first studied by analysis of amino-acid composition and terminal groups of proteins in the nuclei fraction from the testis of rainbowtrout (Salmo irideus) at different stages of spermatogenesis, as shown in Table X-2. These studies showed that in the immature stage DNA is bound to basic proteins of the histone type, which are gradually replaced as maturation proceeds by basic proteins of the protamine type, so that in the fully matured sperm heads DNA is bound only to protamine [Ando and Hashimoto, 1958 (1 2, 3) Felix 1958 Felix, I960]. 

Ando, T., Ishii, S., Yamasaki, M., Iwai, K., Hashimoto, C., Sawada, F. (3) Studies on protamines. I. Amino acid composition and homogeneity of clupeine, salmine and iridine. J. Biochem. (Tokyo) 44, 275—288 (1957). 

---