Abstract
An extract of adult Drosophila melanogaster was separated by gel exclusion, ion exchange, and re-versed-phase chromatography. Four peptides, each with an -ArgPheNH2C-terminal sequence, were identified by radioimmunoassay. The primary sequences were determined by Edman degradation and confirmed by mass spectrometry and sequence-specific radioimmunoassay. Three of the peptides are encoded by Drosophila pro-FMRFamide: AspProLysGlnAspPheMetArgPheNH2 (DPKQDFMRFamide), ThrProAlaGluAspPheMetArg-PheNH2 (TPAEDFMRFamide), and SerAspAsn-PheMetArgPheNH2 (SDNFMRFamide). A novel Drosophila peptide ThrAspValAspHisValPheLeuArgPheNH2 (TDVDHVFLRFamide) was also isolated. TDVDHV-FLRFamide is structurally related to peptides isolated from chicken, cockroach, locust, and snail; the cockroach, fruitfly, and locust peptides differ only by the N-terminal amino acid residue. Two Drosophila neural genes, dsk and FMRFamide, are known to encode -Arg-PheNH2-containing peptides; however, neither encodes TDVDHVFLRFamide,- indicating that Drosophila contains another precursor encoding -ArgPheNH2 peptides.
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Nichols, R. Isolation and Structural Characterization of Drosophila TDVDHVFLRFamide and FMRFamide-Containing Neural Peptides. J Mol Neurosci 3, 213–218 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03380141
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03380141