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Counteraction of urea destabilization of protein structure by methylamine osmoregulatory compounds of elasmobranch fishes.

ABSTRACT: Intracellular fluids of marine elasmobranchs (sharks, skates and rays), holocephalans and the coelacanth contain urea at concentrations averaging 0.4m, high enough to significantly affect the structural and functional properties of many proteins. Also present in the cells of these fishes are a family of methylamine compounds, largely trimethylamine N-oxide with some betaine and sarcosine, and certain free amino acids, mainly beta-alanine and taurine, whose total concentration is approx. 0.2m. These methylamine compounds and amino acids have been found to be effective stabilizers of protein structure, and, at a 1:2 molar concentration ratio of these compounds to urea, perturbations of protein structure by urea are largely or fully offset. These counteracting effects of solutes on proteins are seen for: (1) thermal stability of protein secondary and tertiary structure (bovine ribonuclease); (2) the rate and extent of enzyme renaturation after acid denaturation (rabbit and shark lactate dehydrogenases); and (3) the reactivity of thiol groups of an enzyme (bovine glutamate dehydrogenase). Attaining osmotic equilibrium with seawater by these fishes has thus involved the selective accumulation of certain nitrogenous metabolites that individually have significant effects on protein structure, but that have virtually no net effects on proteins when these solutes are present at elasmobranch physiological concentrations. These experiments indicate that evolutionary changes in intracellular solute compositions as well as in protein amino acid sequences can have important roles in intracellular protein function.

SUBMITTER: Yancey PH

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1161561 | biostudies-other | 1979 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Project description:The electrosense of sharks and rays is used to detect weak dipole-like bioelectric fields of prey, mates and predators, and several models propose a use for the detection of streaming ocean currents and swimming-induced fields for geomagnetic orientation. We assessed pore distributions, canal vectors, complementarity and possible evolutionary divergent functions for ampullary clusters in two sharks, the scalloped hammerhead (Sphyrna lewini) and the sandbar shark (Carcharhinus plumbeus), and the brown stingray (Dasyatis lata). Canal projections were determined from measured coordinates of each electrosensory pore and corresponding ampulla relative to the body axis. These species share three ampullary groups: the buccal (BUC), mandibular (MAN) and superficial ophthalmic (SO), which is subdivided into anterior (SOa) and posterior (SOp) in sharks. The stingray also has a hyoid (HYO) cluster. The SOp in both sharks contains the longest (most sensitive) canals with main projections in the posterior-lateral quadrants of the horizontal plane. In contrast, stingray SO canals are few and short with the posterior-lateral projections subsumed by the HYO. There was strong projection coincidence by BUC and SOp canals in the posterior lateral quadrant of the hammerhead shark, and laterally among the stingray BUC and HYO. The shark SOa and stingray SO and BUC contain short canals located anterior to the mouth for detection of prey at close distance. The MAN canals of all species project in anterior or posterior directions behind the mouth and likely coordinate prey capture. Vertical elevation was greatest in the BUC of the sandbar shark, restricted by the hammerhead cephalofoil and extremely limited in the dorsoventrally flattened stingray. These results are consistent with the functional subunit hypothesis that predicts specialized ampullary functions for processing of weak dipole and geomagnetic induced fields, and provides an anatomical basis for future experiments on central processing of different forms of relevant electric stimuli.

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Counteraction of urea destabilization of protein structure by methylamine osmoregulatory compounds of elasmobranch fishes.

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