Evolution of cooperativity in hemoglobins: what can invertebrate hemoglobins tell us?

While vertebrate hemoglobins typically are tetrameric and show highly regulated and cooperative ligand binding, little is known of the evolution of these properties. We are studying the structural and functional properties of the hemoglobins from Caudina arenicola, an echinoderm. The echinoderms are in the lineage most closely related to the vertebrates to express hemoglobin. C. arenicola has three sets of red cells, in the water vascular system, the coelomic cavity, and in an intestinal vein. Each of these expresses a distinct array of globins. The hemoglobins are cooperative and exhibit unusual ligand-linked associative properties, being dimeric when oxygenated and forming tetramers and higher aggregates on deoxygenation. The major coelomic hemoglobins have been subjected to a detailed examination by a combination of ligand binding analyses and protein and DNA sequencing, as well as X-ray crystallography. Two typical globin introns were identified, along with a unique intron that bisects an N-terminal extension of the globin from the remainder of the gene. X-ray crystallographic analysis shows that the subunit interfaces of C. arenicola hemoglobins differ radically from those of vertebrate hemoglobins and indeed from some other invertebrate hemoglobins, but closely resemble the packing arrangements found in a clam hemoglobin (Scapharca). However, the residues implicated in cooperativity in these two types of hemoglobins differ substantially.