The structure of the major human erythrocyte membrane protein (protein E) was investigated by studying the products of proteolysis of the native protein in the membrane. The distribution and location of the tyrosine residues labelled by radioiodination by lactoperoxidase was determined. Proteolysis of the extracellular region of the protein by thermolysin released four tyrosine-containing peptides, all of which were also found to remain in the major fragment that is retained in the membrane. The presence of these duplicated sites in the extracellular region of the protein was confirmed by limited trypsin digestion of the intracellular region of the protein. Two groups of fragments were obtained. Both groups contained a set of the extracellular labelled sites, but they differed in containing distinct groups of intracellular sites, showing that the two sets of extracellular sites are linked by an intracellular region of the protein. The polypeptide chain thus traverses the membrane twice. An S-shaped model which is consistent with these data is proposed.
