STRUCTURE OF THE CDNA-ENCODING THE PRECURSOR FOR THE NEUROPEPTIDE FMRFAMIDE IN THE BIVALVE MOLLUSK MYTILUS-EDULIS

FMRFAMIDE immunoreactivity is widespread in the tissues of bivalve mol luscs, but some of this immunoreactivity may represent distinct relate d peptides (FaRPs) rather than the exact tetrapeptide FMRFamide. We ha ve cloned the first full-length CDNA encoding the precursor protein fo r FMRFamide from this class of molluscs to investigate the possibility that additional peptides may be produced. The precursor contains one copy each of NFLRFamide, FLRFamide, ALAGDHFFRFamide and 16 copies of F MRFamide. This precursor is expressed in all three ganglia of the cent ral nervous system. Since the gene encoding the FMRFamide precursor in pulmonate molluscs is alternatively spliced to give two distinct mess ages, we searched for evidence that the FMRFamide gene of Mytilus is a lso alternatively spliced. No evidence of alternative splicing was fou nd. NeuroReport 9: 2961-2965 (C) 1998 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.