title: A conserved heptapeptide sequence in the waterborne attractin pheromone stimulates mate attraction in Aplysia.
abstract: Mate attraction in the marine mollusk Aplysia involves long-distance waterborne chemical signaling via the release of the peptide pheromone attractin during egg laying. Aplysia californica attractin attracts conspecifics, reduces the latency to mating, and stimulates hermaphroditic mating. Four additional members of the Aplysia attractin family have recently been characterized from Aplysia brasiliana, Aplysia fasciata, Aplysia depilans, and Aplysia vaccaria. The five sequences differ significantly, but share six cysteine residues and the strictly conserved sequence Ile30-Glu-Glu-Cys-Lys-Thr-Ser36. Attractin is attractive to geographically and evolutionarily distant species, suggesting that the conserved heptapeptide region may be important for mate attraction. Consistent with this prediction, a synthetic constrained cyclic peptide that contains the conserved heptapeptide sequence is significantly attractive in T-maze bioassays. The attractins are the first family of waterborne peptide pheromones characterized in invertebrates and are unique in that family members are not species-specific pheromonal attractants.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy and Neurosciences, Marine Biomedical Institute, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX 77555, USA.
authors.forename: Scott F
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Cummins
authors.forename: Amy E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Nichols
authors.forename: Krishna
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Rajarathnam
authors.forename: Gregg T
authors.initials: GT
authors.lastname: Nagle
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001048:Aplysia / Q000378:metabolism*; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D005260:Female; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010455:Peptides / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry*; D010675:Pheromones / Q000737:chemistry*; D016415:Sequence Alignment
chemical_list: D010455:Peptides; D010675:Pheromones