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The World of Protozoa, Rotifera, Nematoda and Oligochaeta

Ref ID : 6020

Ralf Huch and Jochen D'Haese; Quantification of the soluble Calcium-binding protein (SCBP) in various muscle tissues of the terrestrial Oligochaete Lumbricus terrestris L. Soil Biol.Biochem. 24(12):1231-1235, 1992

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The soluble calcium-binding protein (SCBP) from the body wall muscle of Lumbricus terrestris can be assumed to be the counterpart of the high-affinity calcium-binding protein parvalbumin (PV) from vertebrate muscle, the physiological role of which remains to be established. It is proposed that these proteins could act as soluble relaxing factors, especially in fast contracting muscles (Gerday, 1988). One of the experimental findings supporting this idea is the correlation between the relaxation speed of a muscle and its content of PV. We have been prompted to perform a quantitative analysis on various types of muscle of the terrestrial oligochaete L. terrestris in order to verify the above mentioned correlation for the case of an invertebrate species. The results presented in this report indicate that the amount of SCBP within the body wall muscle is three orders of magnitude higher as compared to the gizzard muscle of L. terrestris.