Sea star tenacity mediated by a protein that fragments, then aggregates.

ABSTRACT: Sea stars adhere firmly but temporarily to various substrata as a result of underwater efficient adhesive secretions released by their tube feet. Previous studies showed that this material is mainly made up of proteins, which play a key role in its adhesiveness and cohesiveness. Recently, we solubilized the majority of these proteins and obtained 43 de novo-generated peptide sequences by tandem MS. Here, one of these sequences served to recover the full-length sequence of Sea star footprint protein 1 (Sfp1), by RT-PCR and tube foot transcriptome analysis. Sfp1, a large protein of 3,853 aa, is the second most abundant constituent of the secreted adhesive. By using MS and Western blot analyses, we showed that Sfp1 is translated from a single mRNA and then cleaved into four subunits linked to

SUBMITTER: Hennebert E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4035948 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature