BIOCHEMISTRY OF THE SEXUAL ORGANS 305 



products between these protamiiies and the amino acid units of which 

 the protamines are built up, and that these protones again contain 

 eight-ninths of their total nitrogen in the form of arginine. It 

 follows, then, that the molecules of salmine, scombriue, and clupeine 

 have a symmetrical structure, and are built up of molecular complexes 

 containing always twice as many arginine molecules as monoamino 

 acid molecules. 



In other protamines the amount of arginine is smaller, while lysine 

 is found to be present. At the same time the number of mouoamino 

 acids bound up in the protamine molecule increases, so that the 

 different protamines exhibit varying degrees of complexity. Ammonia 

 and certain monoamino acids (glycocoll, phenylalanine, glutaminic 

 acid, aspartic acid, the sulphur-containing cystine) are never present. 



In some fishes e.g. Gadus morrhua, 1 Lota vidgaris z the 

 basic substances isolated from the spermatozoa differ essentially 

 from the protamines, and resemble in character more the typical 

 proteins. Their nitrogen content varies between 16 per cent, and 

 18 per cent. On hydrolysis the yield of diamino acids is very much 

 smaller than in the case of the protamines. Only 30 to 40 per 

 cent, of diamino acids, among which arginine again preponderates, 

 are obtained. Accordingly they are not so strongly basic as the 

 protamines. They contain cystine. They are precipitated by 

 ammonia, a reaction which the protamines do not give. They 

 resemble in their behaviour substances which have been isolated 

 from the nuclei of somatic cells, e.g. the blood corpuscles of the 

 fowl, the thymus, etc., and which form another class of the protein 

 substances, to which the name histone has been given. In their 

 properties and their composition these substances, therefore, take a 

 place between the typical proteins and the protamines. 



The substance isolated from the spermatozoa of the carp, cyprinine 

 (or rather the two cyprinines, since two slightly different substances 

 have been isolated), is on the border-line between the protamines 

 and the histones. The cyprinines do not contain any cystine, they 

 are not precipitated by ammonia, and only about thirty-five per cent, 

 of their total nitrogen is present in the form of diamino acids, mainly 

 as lysine in the one of the two cyprinines. 3 



The chemical differences which exist between the spermatozoa o/f 

 the different species and orders occur arbitrarily without reference to 

 zoological relationship. 



1 Kossel and Kutscher, "Beitrage zur Kenntniss der Eiweisskorper," 

 Zeitsch. f. physiol. Chem., vol. xxxi., 1900. 



2 Elirstrom, " Uber ein neues Histon axis Fischsperma," Zeitsch. f. physiol. 

 0/iem., vol. xxxii.. 1901. 



3 Kossel and Dakin, " Beitrag zum System der einfachsten Eiweisskorper," 

 Zeitsch. f. physiol. Chem., vol. xl., 1904. 





