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alpha-Hemocyanin from the Roman snail Helix pomatia is composed of polypeptide chains with a molecular weight of 360000 +/- 30000. The cylindrically shaped hemocyanin molecule contains 20 of these large chains. The polypeptide chain has been split into components with molecular weights of: 210000, 154000, 147000, 112000, 120000, 98000, 55000, and 50000, by gentle proteolysis with enzymes of different specificities. Most of the fragments have molecular weights which are about 50000 or a multiple of 50000. Departure from these values, as found in the 112000 and 120000 fragments, is probably caused by the high carbohydrates content of these components. A mixture of these fragments has the same oxygen binding properties as the nondigested protein. Subtilisin converts the hemocyanin polypeptide chain, under appropriate conditions, almost completely into fragments of 50000 and 55000 daltons with conservation of the oxygen binding properties of the nondigested protein. We conclude from these studies that the polypeptide chain of Helix pomatia alpha-hemocyanin is folded into about seven compact tertiary structures, which are covalently interconnected. This chain of structural domains has been visualized. (Siezen and Van Bruggen (1974), J. Mol. Biol. 90, 77-89) by electron microscopy, which shows 1/20 hemocyanin molecules to be flexible structures consisting of 7-8 apparently spherical units of 55-60 A diameter.

Hemocyanin of Helix pomatia is a respiratory protein with a molecular weight of 9 times 10-6; it contains 180 oxygen binding sites. The reaction of hemocyanin with the bifunctional reagent dimethyl suberimido ester, which reacts with amino groups, has been studied. Up to 75 per cent of the amino groups can be modified without inactivation of oxygen binding sites or dissociation of the protein, It appears that hemocyanin can be fixed in a state with low oxygen affinity by modification of the deoxy protein, and in a state with high oxygen affinity by modification of the oxy protein. Using conditions under which native hemocyanin binds oxygen cooperatively (Hill coefficient 2.9), modification of deoxy- and oxyhemocyanin yields derivatives with different oxygen affinities (P50 equals 10 and 2.2 mm, respectively). Both the deoxy and oxy derivatives show strongly reduced cooperativity (Hill coefficients 1.4 and 1.1, respectively). Modification of oxy- and deoxyhemocyanin subunits (molecular weight one-tenth of the native protein), which bind oxygen noncooperatively, results in derivatives with oxygen binding properties identical with those of unmodified subunits. Parallel experiments have been carried out with a unifunctional reagent, methyl acetoimido ester. Modification of partially oxygenated hemocyanin under conditions at which the protein binds oxygen cooperatively yeilds derivatives with redued cooperativity (Hill coefficents 1.1-1.2) and an oxygen affinity depending on the oxygen saturation whivh modification had been carried out. The results are consistent with a simple two-state model for the cooperativity of oxygen binding by these giant hemocyanin molecules.