Ferritin subunits in livers of siderotic mice

The major ferritin species of mouse liver has been resolved by SDS-PAGE into two bands similar to the H and L subunits of rat liver ferritin with the L subunit predominating. Amino acid sequencing has confirmed the major, faster-migrating component as L chain. An additional, electrophoretically fast, minor ferritin was isolated from siderosome-containing subcellular fractions. In denaturing gels it gave a single 'F' subunit band of about 17 kDa, significantly smaller than the L and H subunits (about 20 and 21 kDa respectively). A small fragment isolated from the fast ferritin was sequenced. It corresponds to a 19-residue C-terminal peptide cleaved from L subunits in the assembled molecules. The F subunit must be derived from L subunits by loss of this peptide, and is not the expression product of a different gene. 'Fast' ferritins of siderotic mice and rats are thus analogous.