B. Dattatreyamurty et Le. Reichert, IDENTIFICATION OF REGIONS OF THE FOLLITROPIN (FSH) BETA-SUBUNIT THAT INTERACT WITH THE N-TERMINUS REGION (RESIDUES-9-30) OF THE FSH RECEPTOR, Molecular and cellular endocrinology, 93(1), 1993, pp. 39-46
We have recently identified a region, N-terminus residues 9-30, in the
extracellular domain of the follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) recept
or capable of binding FSH, but not luteinizing hormone (LH) or thyroid
-stimulating hormone (FSH) (Dattatreyamurty and Reichert (1992) Mol. C
ell. Endocrinol. 87, 9-17). The objectives of the present study were t
o examine the interaction between a synthetic peptide corresponding to
this receptor sequence and the beta-subunit of FSH, and to identify w
hich FSH-beta regions are involved in the interaction. FSH-beta subuni
t and synthetic FSH-beta peptides 1-15, 71-85 and 101-111 effectively
bound I-125-labeled FSH rec-(9-30) peptide, and binding was inhibited
by excess unlabeled FSH receptors. Scatchard analysis indicated that t
he synthetic FSH-beta peptides had affinities for FSH rec-(9-30) pepti
de in the order of 10(6) M-1 (K(a)), with the sum of individual peptid
e affinities (K(a) = 1.21 x 10(7) M-1) closely approximating that of t
he intact beta-subunit (1.02 x 10(7) M-1). Polyclonal antibodies raise
d against FSH rec-(9-30) peptide completely inhibited the binding of I
-125-labeled receptor peptide to hFSH, hFSH-beta, and hFSH-beta peptid
es 1-15, 71-85 and 101-111. Our results indicate that recognition of F
SH-beta by N-terminus region (9-30) of the FSH receptor involves conta
ct with residues in three discontinuous binding regions on FSH-beta. T
he latter finding suggests that these three discontinuous sequence reg
ions of FSH-beta may be closely oriented on the hormone surface to for
m a contiguous region in the three-dimensional structure required for
recognition by the N-terminus region (residues 9-30) of the FSH recept
or.