What is "hemerythrin"

alt. (context biochemistry English) A respiratory pigment found in sipunculids, priapulids and brachiopods. n. (context biochemistry English) A respiratory pigment found in sipunculids, priapulids and brachiopods.

Hemerythrin (also spelled haemerythrin; from Greek words αίμα = blood and ερυθρός = red) is an oligomeric protein responsible for oxygen (O) transport in the marine invertebrate phyla of sipunculids, priapulids, brachiopods, and in a single annelid worm genus, Magelona. Myohemerythrin is a monomeric O-binding protein found in the muscles of marine invertebrates. Hemerythrin and myohemerythrin are essentially colorless when deoxygenated, but turn a violet-pink in the oxygenated state.

Hemerythrin does not, as the name might suggest, contain a heme. The names of the blood oxygen transporters hemoglobin, hemocyanin, hemerythrin, do not refer to the heme group (only found in globins), instead these names are derived from the Greek word for blood.