J. Mcrory et Nm. Sherwood, 2 PROTOCHORDATE GENES ENCODE PITUITARY ADENYLATE CYCLASE-ACTIVATING POLYPEPTIDE AND RELATED FAMILY MEMBERS, Endocrinology, 138(6), 1997, pp. 2380-2390
To address the origin of the glucagon superfamily, we isolated and seq
uenced the complementary DNA and partial gene that encode pituitary ad
enylate cyclase-activating polypeptide (PACAP) from a protochordate (t
unicate), a sister group of the amphioxus and vertebrates, but one tha
t evolved before the amphioxus. This is the first report of any superf
amily member sequenced from an invertebrate. Transcription of the tuni
cate pacap1 gene results in a messenger RNA that is 507 bp. The gene c
ontains 3 exons that encode a signal peptide, GRF-like peptide(1-27),
and PACAP(1-27). The tunicate GRF-like peptide has 59% identity with h
uman GRF, whereas the deduced amino acids of tunicate PACAP(1-27) have
96% identity with the ovine, human, and salmon PACAP(1-27) forms. Ano
ther complementary DNA clone pacap2 was isolated and shown to contain
4 exons that: encode a signal peptide, a cryptic peptide, and two pept
ides that are clearly members of the glucagon superfamily. One of the
peptides has 89% sequence identity to the tunicate PACAP encoded in pa
cap1. A comparison of the two structurally related PACAP clones, each
encoding two peptides on separate exons, shows high inter- and intraex
on nucleotide sequence identity. Sequence analysis suggests that an ex
on duplication followed by a gene duplication was responsible for the
origin of the two genes. It is argued that the PACAP gene is derived f
rom the protochordate ancestral genes that led to the vertebrate forms
of GRF and PACAP.