Stimulation of gonadotropin release by a non-GnRH peptide sequence of the GnRH precursor

Science ◽  
1986 ◽  
Vol 232 (4746) ◽  
pp. 68-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
RP Millar ◽  
PJ Wormald ◽  
RC Milton

The human gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) precursor comprises the GnRH sequence followed by an extension of 59 amino acids. Basic amino acid residues in the carboxyl terminal extension may represent sites of processing to biologically active peptides. A synthetic peptide comprising the first 13 amino acids (H X Asp-Ala-Glu-Asn-Leu-Ile-Asp-Ser-Phe-Gln-Glu-Ile-Val X OH) of the 59-amino acid peptide was found to stimulate the release of gonadotropic hormones from human and baboon anterior pituitary cells in culture. The peptide did not affect thyrotropin or prolactin secretion. A GnRH antagonist did not inhibit gonadotropin stimulation by the peptide, and the peptide did not compete with GnRH for GnRH pituitary receptors, indicating that the action of the peptide is independent of the GnRH receptor. The GnRH precursor contains two distinct peptide sequences capable of stimulating gonadotropin release from human and baboon pituitary cells.

1997 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Makoto Chikira ◽  
Motoi Inoue ◽  
Ryoichi Nagane ◽  
Wataru Harada ◽  
Wataru Harada ◽  
...  

1999 ◽  
Vol 181 (13) ◽  
pp. 3886-3889 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenji Hamada ◽  
Hiromichi Terashima ◽  
Mikio Arisawa ◽  
Nami Yabuki ◽  
Kunio Kitada

ABSTRACT The final destination of glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-attached proteins in Saccharomyces cerevisiae is the plasma membrane or the cell wall. Two kinds of signals have been proposed for their cellular localization: (i) the specific amino acid residues V, I, or L at the site 4 or 5 amino acids upstream of the GPI attachment site (the ω site) and Y or N at the site 2 amino acids upstream of the ω site for cell wall localization and (ii) dibasic residues in the region upstream of the ω site (the ω-minus region) for plasma membrane localization. The relationships between these amino acid residues and efficiencies of cell wall incorporation were examined by constructing fusion reporter proteins from open reading frames encoding putative GPI-attached proteins. The levels of incorporation were high in the constructs containing the specific amino acid residues and quite low in those containing two basic amino acid residues in the ω-minus region. With constructs that contained neither specific residues nor two basic residues, levels of incorporation were moderate. These correlations clearly suggest that GPI-attached proteins have two different signals which act positively or negatively in cell wall incorporation for their cellular localization.


1991 ◽  
Vol 56 (9) ◽  
pp. 1963-1970 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Hlaváček ◽  
Václav Čeřovský ◽  
Jana Pírková ◽  
Pavel Majer ◽  
Lenka Maletínská ◽  
...  

In a series of analogues of the cholecystokinin octapeptide (CCK-8) the amino acid residues were gradually modified by substituting Gly by Pro in position 4, Trp by His in position 5, Met by Cle in position 6, or the Gly residue was inserted between Tyr and Met in positions 2 and 3 of the peptide chain, and in the case of the cholecystokinin heptapeptide (CCK-7) the Met residues were substituted by Nle or Aib. These peptides were investigated from the point of view of their biological potency in the peripheral and central region. From the results of the biological tests it follows that the modifications carried out in these analogues and in their Nα-Boc derivatives mean a suppression of the investigated biological activities by 2-3 orders of magnitude (at a maximum dose of the tested substance of 2 . 10-2 mg per animal).This means that a disturbance of the assumed biologically active conformation of CCK-8, connected with a considerable decrease of the biological potency of the molecule, takes place not only after introduction of the side chain into its centre (substitution of Gly4), but also after the modification of the side chains of the amino acids or by extension of the backbone in further positions around this central amino acid.


1988 ◽  
Vol 251 (3) ◽  
pp. 691-699 ◽  
Author(s):  
R W Olafson ◽  
W D McCubbin ◽  
C M Kay

Biochemical and physiological studies of Synechococcus cyanobacteria have indicated the presence of a low-Mr heavy-metal-binding protein with marked similarity to eukaryotic metallothioneins (MTs). We report here the characterization of a Synechococcus prokaryotic MT isolated by gel-permeation and reverse-phase chromatography. The large number of variants of this molecule found during chromatographic separation could not be attributed to the presence of major isoproteins as assessed by amino acid analysis and amino acid sequencing of isoforms. Two of the latter were shown to have identical primary structures that differed substantially from the well-described eukaryotic MTs. In addition to six long-chain aliphatic residues, two aromatic residues were found adjacent to one another near the centre of the molecule, making this the most hydrophobic MT to be described. Other unusual features included a pair of histidine residues located in repeating Gly-His-Thr-Gly sequences near the C-terminus and a complete lack of association of hydroxylated residues with cysteine residues, as is commonly found in eukaryotes. Similarly, aside from a single lysine residue, no basic amino acid residues were found adjacent to cysteine residues in the sequence. Most importantly, sequence alignment analyses with mammalian, invertebrate and fungal MT sequences showed no statistically significant homology aside from the presence of Cys-Xaa-Cys structures common to all MTs. On the other hand, like other MTs, the prokaryotic molecule appears to be free of alpha-helical structure but has a considerable amount of beta-structure, as predicted by both c.d. measurements and the Chou & Fasman empirical relations. Considered together, these data suggested that some similarity between the metal-thiolate clusters of the prokaryote and eukaryote MTs may exist.


1961 ◽  
Vol 83 (21) ◽  
pp. 4449-4457 ◽  
Author(s):  
Choh Hao Li ◽  
Johannes Meienhofer ◽  
Eugen Schnabel ◽  
David Chung ◽  
Tung-Bin Lo ◽  
...  

1988 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 1247-1252 ◽  
Author(s):  
E Lazar ◽  
S Watanabe ◽  
S Dalton ◽  
M B Sporn

To study the relationship between the primary structure of transforming growth factor alpha (TGF-alpha) and some of its functional properties (competition with epidermal growth factor (EGF) for binding to the EGF receptor and induction of anchorage-independent growth), we introduced single amino acid mutations into the sequence for the fully processed, 50-amino-acid human TGF-alpha. The wild-type and mutant proteins were expressed in a vector by using a yeast alpha mating pheromone promoter. Mutations of two amino acids that are conserved in the family of the EGF-like peptides and are located in the carboxy-terminal part of TGF-alpha resulted in different biological effects. When aspartic acid 47 was mutated to alanine or asparagine, biological activity was retained; in contrast, substitutions of this residue with serine or glutamic acid generated mutants with reduced binding and colony-forming capacities. When leucine 48 was mutated to alanine, a complete loss of binding and colony-forming abilities resulted; mutation of leucine 48 to isoleucine or methionine resulted in very low activities. Our data suggest that these two adjacent conserved amino acids in positions 47 and 48 play different roles in defining the structure and/or biological activity of TGF-alpha and that the carboxy terminus of TGF-alpha is involved in interactions with cellular TGF-alpha receptors. The side chain of leucine 48 appears to be crucial either indirectly in determining the biologically active conformation of TGF-alpha or directly in the molecular recognition of TGF-alpha by its receptor.


2007 ◽  
Vol 31 (11) ◽  
pp. 1878 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuanyuan Liu ◽  
Meigong Fan ◽  
Shuxiao Zhang ◽  
Xiaohai Sheng ◽  
Jiannian Yao

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