title: The bag cell egg-laying hormones of Aplysia brasiliana and Aplysia californica are identical.
abstract: Egg laying in the marine molluscan genus Aplysia is elicited by an egg-laying hormone (ELH) which induces ovulation and acts on central neurons to effect egg-laying behavior. ELH, isolated from the A. californica bag cells, and three ELH-related peptides, isolated from the A. californica atrial gland, have been chemically characterized, yet relatively little is known about homologous peptides in other Aplysia species. In these studies, the primary structure of A. brasiliana ELH was determined. Bag cell clusters were extracted in an acidic solution, and the peptides purified by sequential gel filtration and reversed-phase HPLC; ELH was identified by bioassay. Amino acid compositional and sequence analyses demonstrated that the neurohormone was a 36-residue peptide whose sequence was identical to that of A. californica ELH: NH2-Ile-Ser-Ile-Asn-Gln-Asp-Leu-Lys-Ala-Ile-Thr-Asp-Met-Leu-Leu-Thr-Glu- Gln-Ile- Arg-Glu-Arg-Gln-Arg-Tyr-Leu-Ala-Asp-Leu-Arg-Gln-Arg-Leu-Leu-Glu-Lys-COOH .
authors.affiliation: Marine Biomedical Institute, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston 77550.
authors.forename: G T
authors.initials: GT
authors.lastname: Nagle
authors.forename: S D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Painter
authors.forename: J E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Blankenship
authors.forename: J V
authors.initials: JV
authors.lastname: Choate
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kurosky
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000596:Amino Acids / Q000032:analysis; D000818:Animals; D001048:Aplysia / Q000502:physiology*; D002850:Chromatography, Gel; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D005260:Female; D007447:Invertebrate Hormones / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010058:Oviposition; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D000596:Amino Acids; D007447:Invertebrate Hormones; C026880:egg-laying hormone, Mollusca