Abstract:
                                      In order to investigate the characterization of paramyosin (PM), PM was purified from the muscle of abalone (
Haliotis discus hannai) by ammonium sulfate fractionation and hydroxyapatite chromatography. The molecular mass of PM was about 97.0 ku as estimated by SDS-PAGE. Peptide mass fingerprinting of PM obtained 36 peptide fragments with a total of 403 amino acid residues, which were 99.7% and 72.0% identical with PMs from 
H. discus discus and 
Crassostres gigas, respectively. The isoelectric point of PM detected by two-dimensional electrophoresis was approximately 5.4, suggesting it is an acidic protein. Circular dichroism spectrum of PM solution demonstrated a rotatory maximum at 192 nm and two negative peaks at 208 nm and 223 nm, indicating the typical spectral characteristic of α-helix structure. Meanwhile, the denaturation temperature (T
d) of PM was 58.1 °C as determined by circular dichroism spectrum analysis. FTIR spectra further confirmed that PM has intact α-helical structure. The isolation and physicochemical property investigation of PM from the muscle of abalone would provide theoretical foundation for studying proteins related to its texture and for deep-processing of abalone products.