Hp. Yang et al., Phytosulfokine-alpha, a peptide growth factor found in higher plants: Its structure, functions, precursor and receptors, PLANT CEL P, 41(7), 2000, pp. 825-830
Phytosulfokine-alpha, a sulfated pentapeptide growth factor universally fou
nd in both monocotyledons and dicotyledons, strongly promotes proliferation
of plant cells in culture. It is similar to animal polypeptide hormones in
that it is processed from a larger precursor, preprophytosulfokine, althou
gh the putative processing sites do not conform to consensus sequences for
endoproteolytic processing sites flanking animal prohormones, Like the anim
al preprohormones, preprophytosulfokine also has a signal peptide at the N-
terminus for targeting to secretory pathways. The preprophytosulfokine gene
has been confirmed to be expressed in vivo as well as in vitro.