A new multigene HCIQ subfamily from the sea anemone Heteractis crispa encodes Kunitz-peptides exhibiting neuroprotective activity against 6-hydroxydopamine.

ABSTRACT: The Kunitz/BPTI-type peptides are ubiquitous in numerous organisms including marine venomous animals. The peptides demonstrate various biological activities and therefore they are the subject of a number of investigations. We have discovered a new HCIQ subfamily belonging to recently described multigene HCGS family of Heteractis crispa Kunitz-peptides. The uniqueness of this subfamily is that the HCIQ precursors contain a propeptide terminating in Lys-Arg (endopeptidase cleavage site) the same as in the neuro- and cytotoxin ones. Moreover, the HCIQ genes contain two introns in contrast to HCGS genes with one intron. As a result of Sanger and amplicon deep sequencings, 24 HCIQ isoforms were revealed. The recombinant peptides for the most prevalent isoform (HCIQ2c1) and for the isoform with

SUBMITTER: Kvetkina A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7060258 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature