J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 265, Issue 12, 6617-6623, Apr, 1990
The primary structure of glycoprotein III from bovine adrenal medullary chromaffin granules. Sequence similarity with human serum protein-40,40 and rat Sertoli cell glycoprotein
DJ Palmer and DL Christie
Department of Biochemistry, University of Auckland, Private Bag, New Zealand.
Glycoprotein III (GpIII) was purified from the soluble fraction of bovine
chromaffin granules, the secretory vesicles of the adrenal medulla, by
chromatography using wheat germ agglutinin-Sepharose followed by
reverse-phase high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).
Characterization of this glycoprotein by sodium dodecyl sulfate-
polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, reverse-phase HPLC, amino acid analysis
and partial NH2-terminal sequence analysis indicated that GPIII was a
disulfide-linked heterodimer with 37-kDa subunits. Analysis of in vitro
translation products of adrenal medullary poly(A)+ RNA by
immunoprecipitation using an anti-GpIII serum and sodium dodecyl
sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis suggested that both subunits are
synthesized from a single precursor. Partial NH2-terminal sequence analysis
allowed construction of oligonucleotides which were used as primers for a
polymerase chain reaction to generate a GpIII-specific DNA probe. This
probe was used to isolate a cDNA clone encoding the GpIII precursor from a
bovine adrenal medullary cDNA library. The predicted amino acid sequence of
GpIII has greater than 80% similarity to human serum protein-40,40, a
protein implicated in the complement system, and to a major secretory
product of Sertoli cells, glycoprotein 2, which is thought to play a role
in spermatogenesis. Northern blot analysis confirmed that RNA encoding
GpIII is also abundant in liver, testis, and brain.