Q. Ding et al., COMPARISON OF THE ALLATOSTATIN NEUROPEPTIDE PRECURSORS IN THE DISTANTLY RELATED COCKROACHES PERIPLANETA-AMERICANA AND DIPLOPTERA-PUNCTATA, European journal of biochemistry, 234(3), 1995, pp. 737-746
Allatostatins are a family of insect neuropeptides that inhibit juveni
le hormone biosynthesis by the corpora allata. We have characterized c
DNA and genomic DNA sequences that specify a preproallatostatin precur
sor in the oviparous cockroach Periplaneta americana. Comparison of th
is precursor with that previously described [Donly, B. C., Ding, Q., T
obe, S. S. & Bendena, W. G. (1993) Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 90, 8807-
8811] for the viviparous cockroach Diploptera punctata revealed severa
l common features. First, the precursors are remarkably similar in siz
e and the organization of the peptides within the precursor is conserv
ed. The separation of the peptides into groups by acidic domains withi
n the precursor has been maintained. The P. americana precursor contai
ns 14 allatostatin-like peptides that contain the core C-terminal sequ
ence (Tyr/Phe)-Xaa-Phe-Gly-(Leu/Ile)-NH2, as compared to the D. puncta
ta precursor, which contains 13. Five of the peptides are perfectly co
nserved between the two species. The remainder, with one exception, co
ntain amino acid substitutions in the N-terminal address portion of th
e peptide. Several features of expression are also similar between the
se two species. In both, a single copy gene specifies a large allatost
atin transcript of 5.0 kb in P. americana and 9.2 kb in D. punctata. I
n P. americana, allatostatin transcripts appear to be produced by nume
rous cells in different regions of the brain.