A new peptide, designated PHI (PHI-27), has been discovered and isolated from porcine upper intestinal tissue by using a chemical method for finding peptide hormones and other active peptides. The method is based on chemical detection ofpeptides having the COOH-terminal a-amide structure, which is an unusual chemical feature of some peptide hormones and active peptides. Porcine PHI was found in the intestinal extract by the presence ofits COOH-terminal isoleucine amide structure. It consists of27 amino acid residues and has the following amino acid sequence: His-Ala-Asp-Gly-Val.Phe-Thr-Ser-Asp-Phe-Ser-Arg-LeuLou-Gly-Gln-Leu-Ser-Ala-Lys-Lys-Tyr-Leu-Glu-Ser-Lou-lle-NH2. Me2CO, CHC13, and EtOH for high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) were of spectroscopic grade; all other reagents were ofanalytical grade and were used without fiurther purification. The enzyme preparations used were subtilisin BPN' (EC 3.4.21.14; Sigma), trypsin (EC 3.4.21.4; N-tosylphenylalanine chloromethyl ketone-treated, Worthington), chymotrypsin (EC 3.4.21.1; Merk), and carboxypeptidase Y (EC 3.4.12. 1; Boehringer Mannheim).Chemical Assay ofPHI. PHI was determined by the amount ofisoleucine amide released after treatment ofthe sample with subtilisin BPN' by using .the following procedure, which was derived from a slight modification of the amide determination method previously described (3). Samples (<1 mg) in siliconized glass tubes (5 x 50 mm) were dissolved in 20 Adl-of Hepes, pH 7.5, containing 40 ,g ofsubtilisin BPN', and the tubes were sealed with parfilm and incubated at room temperature for 48 hr. At the end ofthe incubation, 1 nmol of y-aminobutyric acid amide was added to each tube as an internal standard. The reaction mixtures were evaporated to dryness under reduced pressure, and the residues were dissolved in 20-100 p1 of 0.1 M sodium bicarbonate/carbonate, pH 9.5, and treated with equal volumes of DnsCl (2-5 mg/ml) in Me2CO; the mixtures were incubated at 37C for 1 hr. The amount of DnsCl added should not greatly exceed the estimated content of DanCl-reactive groups in the sample to avoid side reactions due to modAbbreviations: PHI, PHI-27, the peptide (P) having NH2-terminal histidine (H) and COOH-terminal isoleucine (I) amide and 27 amino acid residues; VIP, vasoactive intestinal peptide; HPLC, high-performance liquid chromatography; TLC, thin-layer chromatography; Dns, dansyl. * A preliminary communication on this study has been published: Ta The publication costs ofthis article were defr-ayed in part by page charge payment. This article must -therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 U. S. C. §1734 solely to indicate this fact.