Abstract
An agglutinin found in the serum of the crayfish Procambarus clarkii, capable of agglutinating marine bacteria and vertebrate chicken and rabbit red blood cells (RBC), was studied to determine some of its physical and chemical properties. Tests to analyze its nature were (1) pH extreme and heat stability, (2) freezing and thawing, (3) dialysis against 0.01 m Tris buffer, 0.15 M NaCl, (4) chloroform, toluene, xylene, trichloroacetic acid (TCA), ether, and phenol extraction, (5) urea, trypsin, and pronase incubation. Agglutinin activity was normal between pH 6.4 and 10.4; it was inactivated at 70°C in 30 min and by extraction with phenol and 10% TCA. Tests with RBC, three marine bacteria, and the terrestrial pathogenic bacterium Serratia marcescens showed little cross absorption activity (exception between chicken RBC and the marine bacterium 628). Agglutinin molecular weight greater than 150,000 was estimated, using Sephadex G-200 column chromatography. These results indicate that a large molecular weight material, probably containing protein, was responsible for agglutination. Crayfish serum and hemolymph were tested against two marine bacteria (628 and Fr) and one terrestrial bacterium ( S. marcescens) for the presence of bactericidins. None of the bacteria were killed by either the serum or the hemolymph.
Published Version
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