The assembly of Scapharca dimeric hemoglobin as a function of ligation has been explored by analytical gel chromatography, sedimentation equilibrium, and oxygen binding experiments to test the proposal that its cooperativity is based on quaternary enhancement. This hypothesis predicts that the liganded form would be assembled more tightly into a dimer than the unliganded form and that dissociation would lead to lower oxygen affinity. Our experiments demonstrate that although the dimeric interface is quite tight in this hemoglobin, dissociation can be clearly detected in the liganded states with monomer to dimer association constants in the range of 10 8 M ؊1 for the CO-liganded state and lower association constants measured in the oxygenated state. In contrast, the deoxy dimer shows no detectable dissociation by analytical ultracentrifugation. Thus, the more highly hydrated deoxy interface of this dimer is also the more tightly assembled. Equilibrium oxygen binding experiments reveal an increase in oxygen affinity and decrease in cooperativity as the concentration is lowered (in the M range). These experiments unambiguously refute the hypothesis of quaternary enhancement and indicate that, as in the case of human hemoglobin and other allosteric proteins, quaternary constraint underlies cooperativity in Scapharca dimeric hemoglobin.To perform biological activities efficiently, protein molecules have often evolved mechanisms to couple functionally independent subunits. Such cooperative activity is known to be involved in the regulation of many protein functions including enzyme activity (1, 2), gene expression (3, 4), and oxygen transport (5, 6). Much of our understanding of this process has come from studies of mammalian hemoglobins (5, 6), for which cooperativity manifests itself as a stepwise increase in oxygen affinity as oxygen binding proceeds.A particularly simple system for exploring cooperative protein function is the dimeric hemoglobin found in the blood clam Scapharca inaequivalvis, which binds oxygen with a Hill coefficient of 1.5 and shows no change in oxygen affinity or cooperativity as pH varies from 5.5 to 9.0 (7). Although the tertiary structure of the subunits is similar to those of mammalian hemoglobins, the assembly into a cooperative complex is radically different (8). High resolution crystal structure analysis of Scapharca dimeric hemoglobin (HbI) 1 has shown that ligand binding is coupled with significant tertiary rearrangements but very small quaternary changes in the relative subunit dispositions (9, 10).Intersubunit communication depends upon coupling ligand binding with interactions between subunits. As Wyman (11) recognized nearly 50 years ago, cooperative interaction energy may be present as stabilizing energy between unliganded subunits (quaternary constraint; Ref. 12) or liganded subunits (quaternary enhancement; Ref. 13). These alternate conditions can be distinguished either by measuring the strength of the subunit interface as a function of ligation or by following ligand affinity...