Hemocyanins in spiders, XXIII. Complete amino-acid sequence of subunit a of Eurypelma californicum hemocyanin

The complete amino-acid sequence of subunit a of the hemocyanin of the tarantula Eurypelma californicum was determined by manual sequencing. By limited chymotrypsinolysis, subunit a is split into two fragments of 25 kDa and 40 kDa, respectively, only one single peptide bond being attacked. The whole chain contains 15 methionine residues, after cyanogen bromide cleavage, 15 peptides were identified indicating that one residue (Met85) was not split by the cyanogen bromide reaction. For subcleavages, trypsin, chymotrypsin, Staphylococcus aureus proteinase, and Astacus fluviatilis proteinase were employed. The total chain length comprises 627 amino-acid residues, carbohydrate side chains were not found.