title: SIFamide is a highly conserved neuropeptide: a comparative study in different insect species.
abstract: Neb-LFamide or AYRKPPFNGSLFamide was originally purified from the grey flesh fly Neobellieria bullata as a myotropic neuropeptide. We studied the occurrence of this peptide and its isoforms in the central nervous system of different insect species by means of whole mount fluorescence immunohistochemistry, mass spectrometry, and data mining. We found that both sequence and immunoreactive distribution pattern are very conserved in the studied insects. In all species and stages we counted two pairs of immunoreactive cells in the pars intercerebralis. These cells projected axons throughout the ventral nerve cord. In the adult CNSs they formed a large number of immunoreactive varicosities as well. Mass spectrometry and data mining revealed that SIFamide exists in two isoforms: [G1]-SIFamide and [A1]-SIFamide. In addition, the SIFamide joining peptide is relatively well conserved throughout arthropod species. The conserved presence of two cysteine residues, separated by six amino acid residues, allows the formation of disulphide bridges.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Developmental Physiology, Genomics and Proteomics, K.U.Leuven, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium. peter.verleyen@bio.kuleuven.ac.be
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Verleyen
authors.forename: Jurgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Huybrechts
authors.forename: Geert
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Baggerman
authors.forename: Alfons
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Van Lommel
authors.forename: Arnold
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: De Loof
authors.forename: Liliane
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Schoofs
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D000852:Anopheles; D001516:Bees; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D019476:Insect Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*; D013058:Mass Spectrometry; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009479:Neuropeptides / Q000737:chemistry*; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
chemical_list: D019476:Insect Proteins; D009479:Neuropeptides