Pilosulin 5, a novel histamine-releasing peptide of the Australian ant, Myrmecia pilosula (Jack Jumper Ant).
Venom of the Australian ant species Myrmecia pilosula contains a number of allergenic peptides including pilosulins. To obtain novel cDNA clones that encode the pilosulin-related bioactive peptides, mRNA of M. pilosula species complex was subjected to RT-PCR in which the forward primer corresponds to a nucleotide sequence in the leader sequences of pilosulins. We isolated a cDNA clone encoding the novel bioactive peptide pilosulin 5. Tandem mass analysis was entirely consistent with the cDNA derived sequence, and indicated that pilosulin 5 is connected by a single disulfide bridge to create a dimmer peptide of 8546Da. Synthetic pilosulin 5 peptide caused a significant histamine release in a dose-dependent manner, and the mastoparan homologous region of pilosulin 5 was responsible for the activity.
Neuroscience Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, 1-1-1 Higashi, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8566, Japan. h-inagaki@aist.go.jp
Hidetoshi
H
Inagaki
Masaaki
M
Akagi
Hirotami T
HT
Imai
Robert W
RW
Taylor
Michael D
MD
Wiese
Noel W
NW
Davies
Tai
T
Kubo
D000818:Animals; D000862:Ant Venoms / Q000737:chemistry*; D001000:Ants / Q000378:metabolism*; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D006632:Histamine / Q000737:chemistry*
D000862:Ant Venoms; C531528:pilosulin 5, Myrmecia pilosula; D006632:Histamine