Iron and heme contents of the extracellular hemoglobins and chlorocruorins of annelids

Abstract

1. 1. A survey of the literature on the extracellular hemoglobins and chlorocruorins of over 30 species of annelids, covering the last 30 years, shows that the range of iron content is 0.211–0.265 wt.% (mean = 0.228 ± 0.013, N = 28) and the range of the heme content is 1.83–3.64 wt.% (mean = 2.60 ± 0.38, N = 29). 2. 2. There is relatively little scatter in the values of the experimental iron contents and only one of the 28 values is clearly outside the standard deviation range. 3. 3. The values of heme contents are much more scattered, with seven values, clearly outside the standard deviation limits. 4. 4. The aberrant cases are discussed and it is noted that the mean heme content of 2.60 wt.% corresponds to an iron content of 0.236 wt.% in excellent agreement with the mean iron content of 0.228 wt.%. 5. 5. This result suggests strongly that experimental values of iron and heme contents outside the ranges of 0.211–0.243 and 2.3–2.7 wt.%, respectively, corresponding to a minimum molecular mass outside the range 23,000–26,000, should be regarded with caution.