title: Neuropeptide amidation: cloning of a bifunctional alpha-amidating enzyme from Aplysia.
abstract: One of the most common mechanisms of posttranslational modifications to generate biologically active (neuro)peptides is the process of peptide alpha-amidation. The only enzyme known to catalyze this important modification is peptidylglycine alpha-amidating monooxygenase (PAM): a (bifunctional) zymogen, giving rise to a monooxygenase (PHM) and a lyase (PAL). The highly peptidergic central nervous system and endocrine system of the marine mollusk Aplysia has homologs of various mammalian peptide processing enzymes, including furin, Afurin2, prohormone convertase 1 (PC1), PC2, carboxypeptidase E (CPE) and CPD. Previously, it has been shown that the abdominal ganglion of Aplysia, which contains approximately 800 peptidergic bag cell neurons, contains the highest specific alpha-amidating activity. We have identified and cloned multiple overlapping central nervous system and bag cell cDNAs that encode a predicted 748-residue protein that is a member of the PAM family. The protein sequence contains the contiguous sequence of the catalytic domains of PHM and PAL, clearly demonstrating the existence of bifunctional Aplysia PAM, the first invertebrate PAM zymogen with an organization similar to that in vertebrates. None of the characterized clones encoded the so-called exon A domain between the PHM and PAL domains. Furthermore, in a specific search by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction of RNA from multiple tissues we could only detect exon A-less transcripts. PAM expression was detected in the central nervous system, and in several endocrine and exocrine organs. Aplysia PAM is a candidate prohormone processing enzyme that plays an important role in the processing of Aplysia prohormones in the secretory pathway.
authors.affiliation: Marine Biomedical Institute and Department of Anatomy and Neurosciences, University of Texas Medical Branch, Medical Research Building, Galveston, TX 77555-1043, USA.
authors.forename: X
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Spijker
authors.forename: D B
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Akalal
authors.forename: G T
authors.initials: GT
authors.lastname: Nagle
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001048:Aplysia / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics; D001483:Base Sequence; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D005091:Exons; D005260:Female; D017952:Ganglia, Invertebrate / Q000201:enzymology*; D015723:Gene Library; D008297:Male; D006899:Mixed Function Oxygenases / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009097:Multienzyme Complexes; D009479:Neuropeptides / Q000378:metabolism*; D009928:Organ Specificity; D051381:Rats; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
chemical_list: D009097:Multienzyme Complexes; D009479:Neuropeptides; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D006899:Mixed Function Oxygenases; C035189:peptidylglycine monooxygenase