PUBLICATION
Characterization of zebrafish proenkephalin reveals novel opioid sequences
- Authors
- González Nuñez, V., González Sarmiento, R., and Rodriguez, R.E.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-030715-12
- Date
- 2003
- Source
- Mol. Brain Res. 114(1): 31-39 (Journal)
- Registered Authors
- González Nuñez, Veronica, González Sarmiento, Rogelio, Rodriguez, Raquel E.
- Keywords
- none
- MeSH Terms
-
- Amino Acid Sequence
- Animals
- Base Sequence
- Brain Chemistry
- Consensus Sequence
- Enkephalins/genetics*
- Evolution, Molecular
- Female
- Gene Expression
- Male
- Molecular Sequence Data
- Protein Precursors/genetics*
- Zebrafish
- Zebrafish Proteins/genetics*
- PubMed
- 12782390 Full text @ Mol. Brain Res.
Citation
González Nuñez, V., González Sarmiento, R., and Rodriguez, R.E. (2003) Characterization of zebrafish proenkephalin reveals novel opioid sequences. Mol. Brain Res.. 114(1):31-39.
Abstract
Cloning and molecular characterization of an homologous gene to proenkephalin in a teleost, the zebrafish Danio rerio is presented in this paper. The new zebrafish proenkephalin (zfPENK) encodes a 249 amino acid polypeptide that displays an identity of 40% to mammalian PENKs and which contains the consensus sequences for four Met-enkephalins, one Leu-enkephalin and one Met-enkephalin-Gly-Tyr, described for the first time in teleosts. Expression studies indicate that zfPENK is selectively expressed in zebrafish brain. Our findings support the concept that PENK genes might have been highly conserved throughout evolution and that its origins might be placed more than 400 million years ago. Moreover, we present evidence that the heptapeptide Met-enkephalin-Gly-Tyr present in fish might be anterior in evolution to the heptapeptide Met-enkephalin-Arg-Phe present in tetrapods. Also another homologous sequence to proenkephalin in zebrafish genome is presented. This sequence might stand for the third exon of a possible duplicate gene of zfPENK. Our findings not only present new data in relation to the evolution of opioid peptides in vertebrates, but also we present a new heptapeptide with putative differential activity than the other peptides derived from the mammalian proenkephalins. Future research will define the functional role of this new heptapeptide in the mechanism that describes opioid activity.
Genes / Markers
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping