Polyphosphate binding sites in Liophis miliaris hemoglobin. Evidence with reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide...

The water-snake Liophis miliaris presents hemoglobin which binds organic polyphosphate through a simple single-site per tetramer (Mol. Wt. 64500) as judged by titration curves of reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate either in the presence or absence of inositol hexaphosphate. The site seems to have the same structural nature of that found on other hemoglobins and is able to strongly bind most of the known protein effectors such as inositol hexaphosphate, adenosine triphosphate or 2,3-diphosphoglicerate. The high association constant at pH 7 of reduced nicotinamide for the deoxy hemoglobin of about K(D) = 7 x 10(6) M-1 compared to human hemoglobin (K(D) = 7 x 10(5) M-1), and to that of adenosine triphosphate (its natural erythrocytic polyphosphate) still higher of about K(D) = 10(11) M-1, shows clearly the very high affinity of this snake hemoglobin for such allosteric effector. The results besides corroborating the dimer-tetramer transition mechanism proposed to describe the oxygen transport by the hemoglobin of Liophis miliaris--may explain the difficulties to obtain the oxy dimeric conformation of the protein by usual hemolysis and stripped off procedures.