Nebulin-like protein in the earthworm Eisenia foetida. Immunocytochemical electron microscopic study and western blot analysis of several muscle cell types.

Nebulin is a giant protein (500-900 kDa), which has been reported only in the skeletal muscle (not in cardiac muscle) of vertebrates. The possible presence and distribution of nebulin-like proteins in obliquely striated muscles (body wall and inner muscular layer of the pseudoheart) and smooth muscle (outer muscular layer of the pseudoheart) from the earthworm Eisenia foetida have been examined by means of Western blotting analysis and immunoelectron microscopy, using antibodies against mouse nebulin. The results were compared with those obtained in skeletal, cardiac and smooth muscles of the mouse. In the mouse, immunoreaction to nebulin was observed only in the skeletal muscle and extended along the length of the thin filament. In the earthworm, immunoreaction to a nebulin-like protein was found in the muscle of the body wall and the inner muscular layer of the pseudoheart, but not in the outer muscular layer of the pseudoheart. By electron microscopy, immunolabeling to this protein was observed along the whole length of the thin filament. Western blotting analysis of this nebulin-like protein showed a single band at an estimated molecular mass between 350 and 450 kDa that is slightly lower than that of mouse skeletal muscle nebulin.