The spontaneous hemin release from Lumbricus terrestris hemoglobin

The slow, spontaneous release of hemin from earthworm, Lumbricus terrestris, hemoglobin has been studied under mild conditions in the presence of excess apomyoglobin. This important protein is surprisingly unstable. The reaction is best described as hemin released from the globin into water, followed by quick engulfment by apomyoglobin. The energetics of this reaction are compared with those of other types of hemoglobins. Anomalously low activation energy and enthalpy are counterbalanced by a negative entropy. These values reflect significant low frequency protein motion and dynamics of earthworm hemoglobin and may also indicate an open structure distal to the heme. This is also supported by the infrared spectrum of the carbonyl hemoprotein, which indicates several types of distal interactions with the bound CO. The reported low heme to polypeptide ratio for this protein may be due to facile heme and hemin release by the circulating protein.