Studies on subunit structure and evidence that ligandin is a heterodimer

Several lines of evidence indicate that ligandin consists of two different subunits. The protein dissociates into two components that are detected by electrophoresis in a discontinuous sodium dodecyl sulfate system, or in acid-urea gels, and by isoelectric focusing in the presence of urea. The apparent molecular weights of the two polypeptides are 25,000 and 22,000. Alkylated or succinylated ligandins also exhibit subunit heterogeneity and resolved into two bands in these electrophoretic systems. Cross-linked ligandin showed only one band in sodium dodecyl sulfate-gel electrophoresis indicating that the two subunits are part of a heterodimeric protein rather than monomers of two different proteins. No dansylated terminal amino acids were detected suggesting that the NH2-terminal residues of both chains are blocked. One mole of arginine or phenylalanine was released per mole of ligandin after digestion with carboxypeptidase B or A, respectively. Tryptic maps of succinylated ligandin were consistent with identical disposition of arginine residues in both chains, but several additional tryptic peptides were obtained with native ligandin as compared to the predicted number if both subunits were identical. These observations are consistent with the possibility that both subunits contain common sequences and that a small peptide of about 25 to 30 amino acid residues is cleaved from the COOH-terminal of the larger subunit to produce the smaller subunit.