N-terminally extended forms of 5-oxoprolylglutamylprolinamide (Glp-Glu-Pro-NH,), a thyrotropin-releasing-hormone(TRH)-like peptide associated with the male reproductive system, were isolated from human semen by gel exclusion on Sephadex G50, ion-exchange chromatography on SPSephade C25 and QAE-Sephadex A25, and by HPLC. The peptides were located by trypsin-catalysed release of their C-terminal fragments which were detected by RIA with a TRH-specific antibody. A series of overlapping peptides containing 16,18, 22 and 25 residues was obtained in homogeneous form and their sequences were determined by automatic Edman degradation. The peptides all terminated in -Lys-Gln-Glu-Pro-NH, and were found to correspond to sequences occurring between residues 350-374 of semenogelin, a protein present in human semen. In semenogelin, however, the Gln-Glu-Pro sequence is followed by tryptophan and not glycine which is normally essential for formation of the C-terminal amide group. Model experiments with the synthetic peptide Glp-Glu-Pro-Trp showed that under a range of experimental conditions the tetrapeptide did not undergo conversion to Glp-Glu-Pro-NH,. This would indicate that the tripeptide and its extended forms are generated from a precursor that is related to semenogelin but in which Trp375 is replaced by glycine.Several studies have demonstrated the existence of TRHlike peptides (TRH, thyrotropin-releasing hormone) in the male reproductive system [l-51. The first to be identified was Glp-Glu-Pro-NH, (Glp, [3], which differs from TRH in the replacement of histidine by glutamic acid at position 2 of the tripeptide. In addition, other TRH-immunoreactive peptides have been reported which possess a neutral amino acid in place of the histidine of TRH [ 1, 51. Since their sequences do not occur in the TRH prohormone [6-81, it can be concluded that these TRH-like peptides originate from a different precursor and it was therefore considered of interest to identify their N-extended forms which are present in semen, with a view to devising probes that could be used for cloning their biosynthetic precursors. In addition, a knowledge of the sequence of the extended forms would allow their biological activities to be investigated. In this study we describe the isolation and identification of a series of Nextended forms of Glp-Glu-Pro-NH, from human semen.
MATERIALS AND METHODS ReagentsSephadex G25, Sephadex G50 superfine, SP-Sephadex C25 and QAE Sephadex A25 were from Pharmacia Ltd. C8 Zorbax Octyl column was from Jones Chromatography Ltd and C18 pBondapak column was from Waters Ltd. Unless stated, all chemicals were of analytical grade and were from BDH Chemicals Ltd. Methanol and acetonitrile used in HPLC were Super Purity Solvent grade and were obtained from Romil Chemicals Ltd. Reagents and resin supports for peptide synthesis, including amino acid pentafluorophenyl esters, fluorenylmethoxycarbonyl (Fmoc) amino acids and trifluoroacetic acid were from LKB Biochrome Ltd. l-hydroxybenztriazole and dimethylformamide were from Applied...