Smit A B, Spijker S, Nagle G T, Knock S L, Kurosky A, Geraerts W P
Graduate School Neurosciences Amsterdam, Research Institute Neurosciences Vrije Universiteit, Faculty of Biology, The Netherlands.
FEBS Lett. 1994 Apr 18;343(1):27-31. doi: 10.1016/0014-5793(94)80600-4.
A number of peptides have been identified in the central nervous system of the freshwater snail, Lymnaea stagnalis, that function as hormones and neurotransmitters/neuromodulators. These peptides are typically proteolytically processed from larger prohormones mostly at sites composed of single or multiple basic amino acid residues. Previously we demonstrated a diversity of putative prohormone convertases that may be involved in prohormone processing in the Lymnaea brain. In the present report, we have characterized a cDNA clone encoding a putative endoprotease of 837 amino acids. The primary structure of endoprotease (Lfur2) was comparable to that of human furin and contained a putative catalytic domain, a Cys-rich domain, and a transmembrane region. The catalytic domain of Lfur2 demonstrated about 70% residue identity when compared with human furin, PACE4 and Drosophila Dfur1 and dKLIP-1. The Lfur2 gene was expressed in the central nervous system as well as various peripheral tissues of Lymnaea.
