Structural and functional analysis of Aplysia attractins, a family of water-borne protein pheromones with interspecific attractiveness.
Mate attraction in Aplysia involves a long-distance water-borne signal (the protein pheromone attractin), which is released during egg laying. Aplysia californica attractin attracts species that produce closely related attractins, such as Aplysia brasiliana, whose geographic distribution does not overlap that of A. californica. This finding suggests that other mollusks release attractin-related pheromones to form and maintain breeding aggregations. We describe four additional members of the attractin family: A. brasiliana, Aplysia fasciata, Aplysia depilans (which aggregates with A. fasciata aggregations), and Aplysia vaccaria (which aggregates with A. californica aggregations). On the basis of their sequence similarity with A. californica attractin, the attractin proteins fall into two groups: A. californica, A. brasiliana, and A. fasciata (91-95% identity), and A. depilans and A. vaccaria (41-43% identity). The sequence similarity within the attractin family, the conserved six cysteines, and the compact fold of the NMR solution structure of A. californica attractin suggest a common fold for this pheromone family containing two antiparallel helices. The second helix contains the IEECKTS sequence conserved in Aplysia attractins. Mutating surface-exposed charged residues within this heptapeptide sequence abolishes attractin activity, suggesting that the second helix is an essential part of the receptor-binding interface.
Painter
Sherry D
SD
Department of Neuroscience and Cell Biology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX 77555, USA.
Cummins
Scott F
SF
Nichols
Amy E
AE
Akalal
David-B G
DB
Schein
Catherine H
CH
Braun
Werner
W
Smith
John S
JS
Susswein
Abraham J
AJ
Levy
Miriam
M
de Boer
Pamela A C M
PA
ter Maat
Andries
A
Miller
Mark W
MW
Scanlan
Cory
C
Milberg
Richard M
RM
Sweedler
Jonathan V
JV
Nagle
Gregg T
GT
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001048:Aplysia / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000502:physiology*; D006023:Glycoproteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000502:physiology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010675:Pheromones / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000502:physiology*; D020539:Sequence Analysis, Protein; D013045:Species Specificity
D006023:Glycoproteins; D010675:Pheromones; C112624:attractin protein, Aplysia