Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, Cape Town, South Africa.
IZKF Core Unit Proteomics, University of Münster, Münster, Germany.
Amino Acids. 2023 Nov;55(11):1641-1654. doi: 10.1007/s00726-023-03337-7. Epub 2023 Oct 26.
Small neuropeptides from the corpora cardiaca are responsible in cockroaches for the mobilisation of trehalose from the fat body into the haemolymph. Such hypertrehalosaemic hormones (HrTHs) belong to the large family of insect adipokinetic hormones (AKHs); a few HrTHs were previously sequenced from cockroaches, and from genomic and/or transcriptomic information one may predict the genes encoding HrTHs from more species. Definite elucidation of the primary structure of the mature peptide with putative modifications needs analytical chemical methods. In the current study, we use high-resolution mass spectrometry coupled with liquid chromatography to identify unequivocally the HrTHs of 13 cockroach species. Either genomic/transcriptomic information was available for most of the species examined, or from related species. We confirm predicted novel sequences and find hydroxyproline modification for the majority of the peptides. The novel decapeptides are structurally close to Bladi-HrTH, which is found in all seven of the investigated blaberid subfamilies. Bladi-HrTH and all the novel peptides elicit a hypertrehalosaemic response in Periplaneta americana, a blattid cockroach.
来自心侧体的小神经肽在蟑螂中负责将海藻糖从脂肪体动员到血液中。这种高血糖激素（HrTH）属于昆虫脂肪激素（AKH）的大家族；之前已经从蟑螂中测序了一些 HrTH，并且可以根据基因组和/或转录组信息来预测更多物种编码 HrTH 的基因。明确阐明具有假定修饰的成熟肽的一级结构需要分析化学方法。在本研究中，我们使用高分辨率质谱与液相色谱相结合，明确鉴定了 13 种蟑螂物种的 HrTH。大多数被检查的物种都有基因组/转录组信息，或者来自相关物种。我们证实了预测的新序列，并发现大多数肽都有羟脯氨酸修饰。这些新的十肽在结构上与在所有 7 种研究的蜚蠊亚科中都发现的 Bladi-HrTH 非常接近。Bladi-HrTH 和所有新的肽都会引起美洲大蠊（Periplaneta americana）的高血糖反应，这是一种蜚蠊蟑螂。
