title: Expression and functional characterization of a Drosophila neuropeptide precursor with homology to mammalian preprotachykinin A.
abstract: Peptides structurally related to mammalian tachykinins have recently been isolated from the brain and intestine of several insect species, where they are believed to function as both neuromodulators and hormones. Further evidence for the signaling role of insect tachykinin-related peptides was provided by the cloning and characterization of cDNAs for two tachykinin receptors from Drosophila melanogaster. However, no endogenous ligand has been isolated for the Drosophila tachykinin receptors to date. Analysis of the Drosophila genome allowed us to identify a putative tachykinin-related peptide prohormone (prepro-DTK) gene. A 1.5-kilobase pair cDNA amplified from a Drosophila head cDNA library contained an 870-base pair open reading frame, which encodes five novel Drosophila tachykinin-related peptides (called DTK peptides) with conserved C-terminal FXGXR-amide motifs common to other insect tachykinin-related peptides. The tachykinin-related peptide prohormone gene (Dtk) is both expressed and post-translationally processed in larval and adult midgut endocrine cells and in the central nervous system, with midgut expression starting at stage 17 of embryogenesis. The predicted Drosophila tachykinin peptides have potent stimulatory effects on the contractions of insect gut. These data provide additional evidence for the conservation of both the structure and function of the tachykinin peptides in the brain and gut during the course of evolution.
authors.affiliation: School of Biology, University of Leeds, Leeds, West Yorkshire LS2 9JT, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Siviter
authors.forename: G M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Coast
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Winther
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Nachman
authors.forename: C A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Taylor
authors.forename: A D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Shirras
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Coates
authors.forename: R E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Isaac
authors.forename: D R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Nässel
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D018076:DNA, Complementary; D004330:Drosophila / Q000235:genetics*; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D008322:Mammals; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011498:Protein Precursors / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D015320:Tachykinins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D018076:DNA, Complementary; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D011498:Protein Precursors; D015320:Tachykinins; C412572:Tk protein, Drosophila; C044206:preprotachykinin