Cloning of a cDNA encoding a putative molt-inhibiting hormone from the eyestalk of the sand shrimp Metapenaeus ensis.

Degenerate primers were designed from the amino acid sequence of the neuropeptide Pej-SGP-IV of the shrimp Penaeus japonicus. Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was performed using eyestalk complementary DNA of the sand shrimp Metapenaeus ensis. A partial cDNA that codes for a protein homologous to the neuropeptide Pej-SG-IV was cloned. The partial cDNA was used as a probe to screen the eyestalk cDNA library. Several cDNA clones with nucleotide sequence identical to the partial cDNA were isolated. The largest cDNA is 957 bp with an open reading frame consisting of a coding sequence 315 bp in length. The deduced amino acid of the neuropeptide consists of 77 amino acids and is preceded by a signal peptide of 28 amino acids. Because the deduced amino acid sequence of the shrimp cDNA is highly homologous to the Pej-SGP-IV of P. japonicus (which is molt inhibiting) and to other crustaceans' molt-inhibiting hormones (MIHs), the shrimp neuropeptide is tentatively called MeMIH. Northern blot analysis and RT-PCR showed that MeMIH is expressed in the postmolt, intermolt, and premolt stages of the shrimp eyestalks and the brain. Moreover, RNA message can also be detected in the nervous tissues of newly developed larvae. MeMIH is, however, not found in the muscle, swimming leg, and hepatopancreas. Results from genomic Southern blot analysis and amplification of the shrimp genomic DNA by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) suggest that a single copy of the MIH gene is present in the genome. The structural organization of the gene for the shrimp putative MIH is similar to that of the crab Charybdis feriatus.