| one publication added to basket [2176] | Comparative aspects of FMRFamide gene organization in molluscs
Price, D.A.; Greenberg, M.J. (1994). Comparative aspects of FMRFamide gene organization in molluscs. Neth. J. Zool. 44(3-4): 421-431
In: Netherlands Journal of Zoology. E.J. Brill: Leiden. ISSN 0028-2960; e-ISSN 1568-542X, more
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| Authors | | Top |
- Price, D.A.
- Greenberg, M.J.
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| Abstract |
In pulmonate molluscs two precursors for FMRFamide-related peptides (FaRPs) are generated from a single gene by alternative splicing. One precursor gives rise to FMRFamide and FLRFamide and a few variants: the tetra-FaRPs. A second precursor gives rise to FMRFamide and FLRFamide and a few variants: the hepta-FaRPs. The tetra-FaRPs and hepta-FaRPs have mutually exclusive cellular localization and have some differing actions on neurons and muscles. Hepta-FaRPs have been found in pulmonates examined, even the most primitive species, but only in pulmonates and not other gastropods. A decapeptide FaRP isolated from the mussel Mytilus -ALAGDHFFRFamide- is one of the more hepta-FaRP-like peptides isolated from a non-pulmonate, and thus is a candidate homolog of the hepta-FaRPs. But we show that this decapeptide is encoded on the same exon as FMRFamide in the mussel Geukensia, and thus is not a real homolog of the hepta-FaRPs. Since the one and only FaRP precursor known from the opisthobranch Aplysia has a splice junction at a location similar to that of the tetra-FaRP prcursor of polmunates, we speculated that an alternatively-spliced form of the FMRFamide gene exists in this species to. One candidate was the precursor of a group of peptides ending in LFRFamide, but we found that this precursor has no significant sequence in common with the FMRFamide precursor. Thus their remains a dichotomy between polmunates and all other molluscs with regard to their FMRFamide genes and FMRFamide-related peptides. |
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