Lab 4. BLAST by Amina Nur
BLAST
I searched for hemoglobin protein.
We talked about the sickle cell anemia few times in class, and that made me
curious about the animal’s red blood corpuscles because they are cool
creatures. Hemoglobin in the RBCs is responsible for the carrying the oxygen
from the lungs to the tissues. Hemoglobin is like the Ups for O2 delivery
to the cells. The specific protein I searched for is the Hemoglobin in blood
clams and it is 152 amino acids. The source of this protein is Tegillarca
granosa.
Figure 1. picture of Tegillarca granosa (blood clam).
Tegrillarca granosa is a species of ark clam. Due to the red hemoglobin liquid inside the soft tissue, they are known as the blood cockle or blood clam. Tegillarca granosa is one of the few mollusks that has hemoglobin, however their structure and function is still unknown. A phylogenetic evolution was conducted to investigate the evolution of hemoglobin genes, and three hemoglobin isomers Tg-HbI, Tg-HbIIA, and Tg-HbIIB, were found. Experiments also indicated that Tg-Hbs involved in immune defense responses against bacterial infection and bacterial pathogenic factors.
Amino Acid sequence:
61 wnnrklnghg ltlwygiqnf vdqldnaddl
edvarkfsvq htargvgsie fgwikaplae
121 flreklgdkc tdrhveswgk lidviraalt ea
Translation of first 10 amino acid sequence: mgvneaikaa
Methionine, Glycine, Valine, Asparagine, Glutamate, Alanine, Isoleucine, Lysine, Alanine, Alanine
Nucleotide sequence is a mRNA with a 698 bp:
1 gaaatcaaag caggtgctct ttgtagattc agtgccactt gggttaactt caactgtaag
61 aatgggtgtc aacgaagcaa tcaaagccgc cacagaccca gaggttgtta aagacatcag
121 agaaacatgg gaaatggtat caggaaaaaa gaaaaatggc gtagttctaa tgataaaatt
181 gttcgatatg gaagaaaaag ccataccatt tttcaaacgt atgggggatc tatctgatcc
241 atggaacaac aggaagttaa atggtcatgg tttaacactt tggtatggaa tccaaaattt
301 cgttgatcag cttgataatg cagatgattt agaagatgtt gcacgaaaat tctcagtaca
361 acatacagca agaggagttg gttcaattga attcgggtgg attaaagctc ctcttgcaga
421 atttctgaga gaaaaattgg gagacaaatg cacagacaga catgttgaat catggggaaa
481 acttattgat gttatcagag cggcccttac cgaagcatga gaaaaaacga ctattttgat
541 ggaagataat ggactattcc aatagtaaaa gaattcaata atgaacttgt tttcaaattg
601 ttcctgttca aatccgtata tcattttttg taattcttac tcttgtattc tatcaataaa
661 gccatacata ataaatctga aaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa
Citation: Citation:
Bao,Y.B., Wang,Q., Guo,X.M. and Lin,Z.H. “Structure and Immune Expression Analysis of Hemoglobin Genes from the Blood Clam Tegillarca Granosa”. Genet. Mol. Res. 12 (AOP) (2013) In prsss.
Journal: Genet. Mol. Res. 12 (AOP) (2013) In press.
I find it super interesting that the clams are named because of the blood-like liquid inside because of the high levels of hemoglobin, and that they still don't know the function of it! I had not heard of blood clams before reading this post and now I know they are weird but pretty cool! I did some research and found out they are edible, and most popular in Asia as importing them is banned. I don't think they look very appetizing though... Great post! :)
ReplyDeleteI was unaware that there is a species of clam which produces hemoglobin. I recall hearing that other mollusks such as octopuses have blue blood because their blood cells use a metal other than iron to bind oxygen. I wonder which of these blood proteins was present in the most primitive forms of mollusks, and which was derived later on.
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