A new acidic protein in porcine brain.

An extremely acidic protein has been isolated in a purified form from porcine rain extract, by (NH4)2SO4 fractionation followed by column chromatography on DEAE-Sephadex A-50 and on Sephadex G-75. The purified protein was tentatively named as glutamic acid-rich protein because it was characterized by its remarkably high content of glutamic acid which accounted for 49% of the total amino acid composition. The protein appeared to be a single polypeptide chain with a molecular weight of 56 000-58 000, and had an isoelectric point of 4.6. The N-terminal amino acid sequence was Asp-Glu-Pro-Pro-Ser-Glu-Gly. The immunochemical analysis using rabbit antiserum prepared to the porcine protein has suggested that it is present in the brain of human, cow, cat, dog and goat as well as in various goat organs including liver, kidney, heart, small intestine and spleen.