Most amphibians belonging to Rhacophoridae have an arboreal life. A large amount of bioactive peptides have been identified from amphibian skin, but none from amphibians belonging to Rhacophoridae have been reported to date. A tachykinin-like peptide, tachykinin-Thel, was purified and characterized from skin secretions of the tree frog, Theloderma kwangsiensis. Its primary structure was determined as KPSPDRFYGLM-NH2 by Edman degradation and mass spectrometry analysis. cDNA sequence encoding the precursor of tachykinin-Thel was cloned from the skin cDNA library. Tachykinin-Thel induced the contraction of isolated ileum smooth muscle in a dose-dependent manner. The current work reported a bioactive peptide, tachykinin-Thel, from Rhacophoridae amphibians and confirmed the presence of tachykinin-like peptide in the skin of the tree frog, which may facilitate their arboreal life.
How to translate text using browser tools
1 July 2013
Purification and Characterization of a Tachykinin-Like Peptide from Skin Secretions of the Tree Frog, Theloderma kwangsiensis
Hao Zhang,
Lin Wei,
Chengda Zou,
Jeff Jinfeng Bai,
Yuzhu Song,
Huan Liu
ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE
Zoological Science
Vol. 30 • No. 7
July 2013
Vol. 30 • No. 7
July 2013
amphibian
skin secretions
tachykinin-like peptide
Theloderma kwangsiensis
tree frog