title: The water-borne protein signals (pheromones) of the Antarctic ciliated protozoan Euplotes nobilii: structure of the gene coding for the En-6 pheromone.
abstract: The marine Antarctic ciliate, Euplotes nobilii, secretes a family of water-borne signal proteins, denoted as pheromones, which control vegetative proliferation and mating in the cell. Based on the knowledge of the amino acid sequences of a set of these pheromones isolated from the culture supernatant of wild-type strains, we designed probes to identify their encoding genes in the cell somatic nucleus (macronucleus). The full-length gene of the pheromone En-6 was determined and found to contain an open-reading frame specific for the synthesis of the En-6 cytoplasmic precursor (pre-pro-En-6), which requires 2 proteolytic cleavages to remove the signal peptide (pre) and the prosegment before secretion of the mature protein. In contrast to the sequence variability that distinguishes the secreted pheromones, the pre- and pro-sequences appear to be tightly conserved and useful for the construction of probes to clone every other E. nobilii pheromone gene. Potential intron sequences in the coding region of the En-6 gene imply the synthesis of more En-6 isoforms.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia Molecolare Cellulare Animale, University of Camerino, 62032 Camerino (MC), Italy.
authors.forename: Antonietta
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: La Terza
authors.forename: Nicoleta
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Dobri
authors.forename: Claudio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Alimenti
authors.forename: Adriana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vallesi
authors.forename: Pierangelo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Luporini
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D000864:Antarctic Regions; D001483:Base Sequence; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D016054:DNA, Protozoan / Q000235:genetics; D016812:Euplotes / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D015870:Gene Expression; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D010675:Pheromones / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000235:genetics; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D015800:Protozoan Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000235:genetics; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D016054:DNA, Protozoan; D010675:Pheromones; D015800:Protozoan Proteins