A novel β-thymosin from the sea urchin: extending the phylogenetic distribution of β-thymosins from mammals to echinoderms
✍ Scribed by Stanka Stoeva; Susanne Hörger; Wolfgang Voelter
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1997
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 215 KB
- Volume
- 3
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 1075-2617
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✦ Synopsis
The study of the phylogenetic distribution of the b-thymosin family is important to elucidate its biological function further. A new thymosin, designated as thymosin b 14 , consisting of 40 amino acid residues and with a molecular weight of 4537 Da as determined by ion spray mass spectrometry, was isolated from the sea urchin. The N-terminus of this polypeptide is blocked by an acetyl group as found by matrix-assisted laser desorption mass spectrometric and amino acid analysis. The primary structure was elucidatd by Edman degradation of the HPLC-purified thymosin b 14 fragments produced by digestion with endoproteinase Asp-N and trypsin. Sequence comparison reveals that thymosin b 14 is 73% homologous to thymosin b 4 , obtained from calf thymus. By isolating and characterising the structure of thymosin b 14 from the sea urchin, an invertebrate, substantial knowledge about the phylogenetic distribution and evolution of b-thymosins is gained.