Analysis of antifreeze glycoproteins in fish serum.

A procedure utilizing high-pressure size-exclusion chromatography that permits rapid screening for both the types of components present in and the quantity of antifreeze glycoprotein in fish serum or solution is described. The applicability of the method is demonstrated by a comparative study of five different fish species, four of which contain the antifreeze glycoprotein and one which does not contain this protein. The antifreeze glycoprotein compositions of two fish of the same species, collected at different locations or under different environmental conditions, are also compared. A linear molecular-weight versus elution-volume function is established for both standard native proteins and the antifreeze glycoproteins, but these two lines do not coincide. The differences in tertiary structure between the antifreeze glycoproteins and normal proteins are presented as an explanation for the nonequivalence of calibration lines.