The Multifunctional Catalytic Hemoglobin from Amphitrite ornata : Protocols on Isolation, Taxonomic Identification, Protein Extraction, Purification, and Characterization

The multifunctional catalytic hemoglobin from the terebellid polychaete , also named dehaloperoxidase ( DHP), utilizes the typical oxygen transport function in addition to four observed activities involved in substrate oxidation. The multifunctional ability of DHP is presently a rare observation, and there exists a limitation for how novel dehaloperoxidases can be identified from macrobenthic infauna. In order to discover more infaunal DHP-bearing candidates, we have devised a facilitated method for an accurate taxonomic identification that places visual and molecular taxonomic approaches in parallel. Traditional visual taxonomic species identification by the non-specialist, at least for or even for other marine worms, is a very difficult and time-consuming task since a large diversity is present and the method is restricted to adult worm specimens. The work herein aimed to describe a method that simplifies the taxonomic identification of in particular through the assessment of its mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene by employing the DNA barcoding technique. Furthermore, whole-worm specimens of were used to extract and purify DHP followed by an H O -dependent peroxidase activity assay evaluation against substrate 2,4,6-trichlorophenol. DHP isoenzyme A was also overexpressed as the recombinant protein in , and its peroxidase activity parameters were compared to DHP from the natural source. The activity assay assessment indicated a tight correlation for all Michaelis-Menten parameters evaluated. We conclude that the method described herein exhibits a streamlined approach to identify the polychaete , which can be adopted by the non-specialist, and the full procedure is predicted to facilitate the discovery of novel dehaloperoxidases from other marine invertebrates.