The crystal sheaths from bivalve hinge ligaments

The aragonite crystals in the molluscan bivalve hinge ligament are surrounded by an organic sheath which is distinct from the remainder of the ligament matrix. Methods have been developed to isolate these sheathed crystals from the ligaments of Spisula solidissima and Mercenaria mercenaria employing a papain digestion of the matrix protein. The sheathed crystals from Spisula have a CaCO3/protein ratio of 11.1 and those from Mercenaria a ratio of 29.6. The sheathed crystals and the empty crystal sheaths have been examined by electron microscopy for structural integrity. The sheath proteins exhibit much smaller proportions of the amino acids glycine and methionine than the hinge ligaments. These are characteristic amino acids of high concentrations in the hinge ligaments of both species. The concentrations of acidic and basic amino acids are increased about two fold in the sheaths over those of the ligaments. Otherwise there is little similarity in the amino acid composition of the sheaths in the two species. However, SDS electrophoresis shows the sheaths of both to contain a major protein component with a molecular weight of about 25,000. The sheath protein from the Mercenaria ligament contains about 5% carbohydrate and that of Spisula sheaths less than 1% carbohydrate.