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First published online March 31, 2009
Journal of Experimental Biology 212, 1140-1152 (2009)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2009
doi: 10.1242/jeb.028621

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Identification of SYWKQCAFNAVSCFamide: a broadly conserved crustacean C-type allatostatin-like peptide with both neuromodulatory and cardioactive properties

Patsy S. Dickinson^1,*, Teerawat Wiwatpanit¹, Emily R. Gabranski¹, Rachel J. Ackerman², Jake S. Stevens¹, Christopher R. Cashman^1,2, Elizabeth A. Stemmler² and Andrew E. Christie³

¹ Department of Biology, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME 04011, USA
² Department of Chemistry, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME 04011, USA
³ Center for Marine Functional Genomics, Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory, Salisbury Cove, ME 04672, USA

^* Author for correspondence (e-mail: pdickins{at}bowdoin.edu)

Accepted 28 January 2009

The allatostatins comprise three structurally distinct peptide families that regulate juvenile hormone production by the insect corpora allata. A-type family members contain the C-terminal motif –YXFGLamide and have been found in species from numerous arthropod taxa. Members of the B-type family exhibit a –WX₆Wamide C-terminus and, like the A-type peptides, appear to be broadly conserved within the Arthropoda. By contrast, members of the C-type family, typified by the unblocked C-terminus –PISCF, a pyroglutamine blocked N-terminus, and a disulfide bridge between two internal Cys residues, have only been found in holometabolous insects, i.e. lepidopterans and dipterans. Here, using transcriptomics, we have identified SYWKQCAFNAVSCFamide (disulfide bridging predicted between the two Cys residues), a known honeybee and water flea C-type-like peptide, from the American lobster Homarus americanus (infraorder Astacidea). Using matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization Fourier transform mass spectrometry (MALDI-FTMS), a mass corresponding to that of SYWKQCAFNAVSCFamide was detected in the H. americanus brain, supporting the existence of this peptide and its theorized structure. Furthermore, SYWKQCAFNAVSCFamide was detected by MALDI-FTMS in neural tissues from five additional astacideans as well as 19 members of four other decapod infraorders (i.e. Achelata, Anomura, Brachyura and Thalassinidea), suggesting that it is a broadly conserved decapod peptide. In H. americanus, SYWKQCAFNAVSCFamide is capable of modulating the output of both the pyloric circuit of the stomatogastric nervous system and the heart. This is the first demonstration of bioactivity for this peptide in any species.

Key words: Homarus americanus, transcriptomics, expressed sequence tag (EST), matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization-Fourier transform mass spectrometry (MALDI-FTMS), stomatogastric ganglion, heart

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