별 불가사리 (Asterina pectinifera) 촉수로부터 항균성 펩타이드와 근수축 펩타이드의 정제 및 특성

Abstract

A novel neuropeptide, named starfish tubefeet neuropeptide (SFTN) with contractile activity on the dorsal retractor muscle (DRM) of starfish was isolated from the acidified tubefeet extract of starfish, Asterina pectinifera. To purify the contractile peptide, the acidified extract was partially purified with Sep-pak C18 solid-phase extraction cartridges using stepwise gradient with increasing the percent of acetonitrile (10%, 60%, 100%) containing 0.1% TFA. The contractile activity was recovered in the 60% acetonitrile fraction. This fraction was further separated by C4 reversed phase, gel-filtration and C18 reversed phase HPLC and a contractile active peptide was purified to homogeneity. For the characterization of the purified peptide, the molecular weight and amino acid sequence analysis were performed by MALDI-TOF MS and Edman degradation. The molecular weight and partial primary sequence of this material turned out to be 3465 Da and GNAXXKGTXHEIPPGGNNPYYAVLXGEXNT. Comparison of the amino acid sequence with that of known neuropeptides revealed that the SFTN is a novel peptide having contractile activity on the starfish DRM. To confirm the primary structure, cDNA work is in process.