Structural organization of the rat gene for the arginine vasopressin-neurophysin precursor.

Abstract

The rat arginine vasopressin-neurophysin precursor gene has been isolated from a genomic library cloned in X phage Charon 4A. Restriction mapping and nucleotide sequence analysis demonstrated that the gene is 1.85 kilobase pairs long and contains two intervening sequences located in the protein coding region. Exon A encodes a putative signal peptide, the hormone arginine vasopressin and the variable N terminus of the carrier protein neurophysin, exon B encodes the highly conserved middle part of neurophysin and exon C its variable C terminus together with glycoprotein. Thus, the three functional domains of the precursor -argiline vasopressin, neurophysin, glycoprotein -are encoded on three distinct exons.

Rats with physically disconnected hypothalamo‐pituitary tracts no longer contain vasopressin‐oxytocin gene transcripts in the posterior pituitary lobe

“…RNA was denatured with glyoxal [6], electrophoresed in 1.45070 agarose gels and transferred to Zeta Probe membranes (Bio Rad, Munich, FRG). Hybridization was carried out with labelled [11] DNA probes (3-5 x 10 6 cpm/ml) specific for the vasopressin (638 bp PstI/HindllI in pUC 8; [5]) or oxytocin (700 bp AvaI/EcoRl in pUC 8; [7]) genes.…”

“…Poly(A) + RNA from rat hypothalamus and the entire pituitary gland were converted into single stranded cDNA and amplified by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using primers (20-mers) corresponding to the extreme 5' and 3' ends of either rat hypothalamic vasopressin or oxytocin mRNAs [5,7]. Amplified products of the pituitary cDNAs were identical in size to those of the hypothalamus and hybridized strongly to 3Zp labelled probes specific for either vasopressin-or oxytocin-encoding transcripts (Fig.…”

“…1). In the hypothalamus, several nearby transcriptional start points were shown to exist in the vasopressin and oxytocin genes [5,7]. RNase protection experiments demonstrate that in posterior pituitary and hypothalamus RNAs identical patterns of protected bands are observed, occurring in the same relative abundance.…”

Human neuropeptide Y, somatostatin and vasopressin precursors identified in cell‐free translations of hypothalamic mRNA

“…The in vivo and in vitro synthesized precursors to nonapeptide vasopressin have been well characterized [14,15] and the sequences of both mRNA and gene have been elaborated [8,16]. The hormone precursor includes vasopressin immediately following the signal peptide which cues the nascent polypeptide into the endoplasmic reticulum.…”

Molecular evolution of the neurohypophysial hormone precursors in mammals: Comparative genomics reveals novel mammalian oxytocin and vasopressin analogues

“…Basic residues between various components of the precursor serve as signals to allow efficient and specific cleavage, and a Gly residue following the neurohypophysial peptide allows C-terminal amidation. The genes for OT and VP each comprise three exons, the first encoding the signal peptide, neurohypophysial peptide and the start of Np, the second the bulk of Np and the third the C-terminal end of Np and (in the case of VP precursor) copeptin [17,19,26].…”