110 THE PROTEIN SUBSTANCES. 



Later KOSSEL isolated and studied similar bases from the spermatozoa 

 of herring, sturgeon, mackerel, and other fishes. As all these bases are 

 not identical, KOSSEL uses the name protamines to designate the group, 

 and calls the individual protamines according to their origin salmine, 

 clupeine, scombinc, sturine, cyprinine, cyclopterine, etc. 



They differ essentially from the proteins by the fact that they yield 

 chiefly diamino-acids (always abundant arginine) as cleavage products, 

 and only a small amount of monamino-acids. They are strongly basic 

 substances rich in nitrogen (about 30 per cent or more) and have high 

 moleculer weight. 



The percentage composition of these bodies has not been satisfactorily 

 determined. As probable formulae we have for salmine C32H 54 Ni8O4 

 (MIESCHER, SCHMIDEBERG, NELSON), or CsoH^H^Oe (KOSSEL and GOTO), 

 for clupeine CaoH^N^Og, and for sturine CseHegHigOy (KOSSEL) or 

 C3 4 H7iN 17 O9 (GOTO), or according to MALENUCK C27H 55 Hi3P7 for sturine 

 from Accipenser Guldenstadtii. On boiling with dilute mineral acids, 

 as also by tryptic digestion, the protamines first yield peptone-like sub- 

 stances called protones, from which simple products are derived on fur- 

 ther cleavage. All protamines yield arginine, the four protamines 

 salmine, clupeine, cyclopterine, and sturine, yielding 87.4, 82.2, 62.5, 

 and 58.2 per cent respectively. In the three protamines salmine, clupeine 

 and scombrine the arginine nitrogen, according to KOSSEL and PRINGLE,* 

 amounts to about 89 per cent of the total nitrogen. Sturine yields besides 

 this the two hexone bases lysine, 12 per cent, and histidine, 12.9 per cent. 

 Histidine has not been found in any other protamine. The carp pro- 

 tamine, cyprinine, occurs in two different modifications, namely, a- 

 and /3-cyprinine. The a-cyprinine yields only little arginine, 4.9 per 

 cent, but the lysine content is pronounced, 28.8 per cent. Of the total 

 nitrogen 30.3 per cent exists as lysine. KOSSEL and DAKIN have obtained 

 from salmine the following cleavage products, namely, arginine 87.4, 

 serine 7.8, aminovaleric acid 4.3, and a-pyrrolidine-carboxylic acid 11 

 per cent, and according to them the salmine contains about 10 mol. 

 arginine, 2 mol. serine, 1 mol. aminovaleric acid, and 2 mol. proline. 

 Scombrine contains only arginine, alanine, and proline. KOSSEL 

 believes that diarginide or polyarginide groups also occur in the pro- 

 tamines, and in clupeine we can accept the presence of diarginylalanine, 

 diarginylserine, diarginylproline, and diarginylvaline (KossEL and 

 PRINGLE). 



The following summary according to KOSSEL 2 gives a view of the 

 cleavage products of the protamines thus far investigated : 



1 Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem., 49. 2 Ibid., 44. 



