Comparative properties of vertebrate parvalbumins.

Pure parvalbumins isolated from turtle, chicken, and rabbit white skeletal muscle have been characterized in terms of their physical, chemical, and immunological properties. As for the parvalbumins of most fish and amphibians, they have sedimentation constants S20,w of approximately 1.45 +/- 0.25 S and molecular weights of approximately 12,000, with little or no evidence for aggregation. They contain no tryptophan, at most one tyrosine, and a high proportion of phenylalanine, resulting in characteristic absorption spectra. All three parvalbumins contain 2 g atoms of calcium/mol bound with a KDiss less than or equal to 10(-6) M. Complete removal of calcium can be achieved by treatment with EDTA and EGTA or by a purified preparation of fragmented sarcoplasmic reticulum. By a direct analytical procedure, the concentration of parvalbumins in white skeletal muscle from the turtle, chicken, and rabbit was estimated at approximately 9 to 11, 0.2 to 0.4, and 0.6 to 1.1 g/kg, respectively. No parvalbumin or immunologically cross-reacting material could be detected in chicken white breast muscle, and very little was found in rabbit red muscle. All three proteins are immunologically distinct. A "minor" isoparvalbumin (approximately 2% of the major component) was found in turtle muscle only.