Mass Spectrometric Analyses of Brain Synaptic Peptides Containing Taurine

Abstract

The structure of a number of low-molecular-weight acidic peptides containing taurine prepared from calf brain synaptosomes and their subcellular vesicles was studied using electron impact mass spectrometry. At least seven sequences could be identified: N-acetylaspartyl-glutamyl-taurine, N-acetylaspartyl-taurine, N-acetylglutamyl-taurine, glutamyl-taurine, aspartyl-taurine, seryl-glutamyl-seryl-taurine, and seryl-taurine.

Physiological role of taurine – from organism to organelle

“…Taurine is often referred to as an amino acid and small polypeptides have been identified which contain taurine (Marnela et al . ). This incorporation remains, however, a mystery as no aminoacyl tRNA synthetase has been recognized as identifying taurine and capable of incorporating it into a tRNA (Lahdesmaki ).…”

Physiological actions of taurine

“…The synthetic stereoisomer y-D-glutamyltaurine is a potent antagonist of the quisqualate and kainate subtypes of the excitatory a.mino acid receptor and has been used in their characterization (161). Various acylated peptides have also been reported, such as N-acetylaspartylglutamyltaurine, N-acetylaspartyltaurine, and N-acetylglutamyltaurine (496). The study of taurine-containing peptides is still in the early stages.…”

Isolation of Glutamyltaurine from Bovine Brains and Proof of Its γ‐Linkage by the B/E Linked Scan SIMS Technique

“…The present evidence that it can be isolated from mammalian brain gives some support to our previous suggestions that this peptide may be localized in neurons. Independently of the mass spectrometric data by the Finnish group (Marnela and Lahdesmaki, 1983;Marnela et al, 1984, we had found immunochemical and immunohistochemical evidence for the existence, in specific neurons in certain regions of rat brain, of taurine peptide(& most probably including or exclusively y-glutamyltaurine (Tomida et al, 1985;Ida et a]., 1987;Tomida and Kimura, 1987;Ienaga et al, 1988~-d). This evidence was based on work with antisera against taurine and y-glutamyltaurine in which it was found that each immunoreactivity (taurine-like and y-glutamyltaurine-like) was fundamentally different.…”