| Title: | "Structural and functional analysis of Aplysia attractins, a family of water-borne protein pheromones with interspecific attractiveness" |
| Author(s): | Painter SD; Cummins SF; Nichols AE; Akalal DB; Schein CH; Braun W; Smith JS; Susswein AJ; Levy M; de Boer PA; ter Maat A; Miller MW; Scanlan C; Milberg RM; Sweedler JV; Nagle GT; |
| Address: | "Department of Neuroscience and Cell Biology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX 77555, USA" |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 0027-8424 (Print) 1091-6490 (Electronic) 0027-8424 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "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" |
| Keywords: | "Amino Acid Sequence Animals Aplysia/*chemistry/*physiology Glycoproteins/*chemistry/isolation & purification/*physiology Molecular Sequence Data Pheromones/*chemistry/isolation & purification/*physiology Sequence Analysis, Protein Species Specificity;Neuroscience;" |
| Notes: | "MedlinePainter, Sherry D Cummins, Scott F Nichols, Amy E Akalal, David-B G Schein, Catherine H Braun, Werner Smith, John S Susswein, Abraham J Levy, Miriam de Boer, Pamela A C M ter Maat, Andries Miller, Mark W Scanlan, Cory Milberg, Richard M Sweedler, Jonathan V Nagle, Gregg T eng GM-08224/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ R01-NS5546/NS/NINDS NIH HHS/ S06 GM008224/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ NS31609/NS/NINDS NIH HHS/ R01 NS031609/NS/NINDS NIH HHS/ Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S. Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S. 2004/05/01 Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2004 May 4; 101(18):6929-33. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0306339101. Epub 2004 Apr 26" |
