Summary
We reported previously that habutobin, a thrombin-like enzyme from Trimeresurus flavoviridis venom, clotted only rabbit fibrinogen, whereas human, monkey, bovine, dog, rat and
guinea-pig fibrinogens were unaffected. In the present study, we investigated the
cleavage site of the rabbit Aα chain by habutobin. The fibrinopeptide released by
habutobin was identical to the fibrinopeptide A released by thrombin, and its amino
acid sequence corresponded to Aα 1-16 of rabbit fibrinogen. It was clarified therefore
that habutobin cleaves the Arg16-Gly17 bond in the Aa chain of rabbit fibrinogen.