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Arctic adaptation in whale hemoglobin: interplay of carbon dioxide and temperature in the oxygen unloading
B Giardina1, M Ekker, S G Condó
1Department of Experimental Medicine and Biochemical Sciences, II University of Rome, Italy.
Abstract:
The functional properties of hemoglobin from the whale Balaenoptera acutorostrata have been characterized as a function of pH, CO2, organic phosphates and temperature. Carbon dioxide effect does not depend on the presence of organic phosphates such as 2,3-DPG and P6-inositol while it is strongly affected by temperature, so that at 37 degrees C it is completely abolished. This, together with the very small delta H of oxygen binding (delta H = -4 to -2 Kcal/mol of oxygen at pH 7.4) has been physiologically interpreted on the basis of the specific metabolic needs of fins and tail which are the place of a great muscular activity.