The activity of the erythrocyte monosaccharide transport system is not correlated with crosslinkage of band 3 protein

Abstract

We have prepared sealed vesicles from erythrocyte membranes in which 90% of band 3, the predominant intrinsic polypeptide, had been crosslinked by Cu 2+/o-phenanthroline treatment. The initial rates of L-sorbose uptake via the monosaccharide transport system in the vesicles varied from 72 to 176% of the rates for the corresponding control vesicles with uncrosslinked band 3. These results suggest that band 3 does not participate in monosaccharide transport.