Red pigment-concentrating hormone is not limited to crustaceans

• DOI: 10.1016/j.bbrc.2003.08.107
• Publication Date: 2003-09-12T09:20:58Z
• Authors: Gerd Gäde; Lutz Auerswald; Petr Šimek; Heather G Marco; Dalibor Kodrı́k
• Keywords: Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization; 0303 health sciences; 03 medical and health sciences; Crustacea; Animals; Reference Standards; Oligopeptides; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; Pyrrolidonecarboxylic Acid

A peptide that was previously assumed to occur exclusively in crustaceans is found in the corpora cardiaca of the stinkbug, Nezara viridula. The sequence of the peptide was deduced from the multiple MS(N) electrospray mass data as that of an octapeptide: pGlu-Ile/Leu-Asn-Phe-Ser-Pro-Gly-Trp amide. This peptide with Leu at position 2 is known as crustacean red pigment-concentrating hormone and code-named Panbo-RPCH. The ambiguity about the amino acid at position 2, Leu or Ile, was solved by isolating the peptide in a single-step by reversed-phase HPLC and establishing co-elution with authentic Panbo-RPCH but not with the Ile(2)-analog. When injected into stinkbugs, synthetic Panbo-RPCH elicited an increase of lipids in the haemolymph. Thus, it is assumed that Panbo-RPCH functions in the stinkbug as a lipid-mobilizing hormone.