First consequences of the determination of the entire antigenic structure of sperm-whale myoglobin.

By using the antigenic structure of sperm-whale Mb as a model we have established that the antigenicity of its sites is independent of any sequence identities between the injected myoglobin and the Mb of the immunized animal. Furthermore, the ability to produce in rabbits autoantibodies to rabbit Mb and the successful extrapolation of the antigenic structure of sperm-whale Mb to human hemoglobin strongly demonstrated that the antigenicity of certain parts of a protein molecule is primarily dependent on the uniqueness of their conformational locations.