Human fibronectin is synthesized as a pre‐propolypeptide

Abstract

Fibronectins (FNs) are extracellular glycoproteins consisting of dimers or multimers of similar but not identical subunits. The subunit differences result from variations in internal primary sequence due to alternative splicing in at least 2 regions of the pre-mRNA. The complete amino acid sequence of mature human cellular FN has been reported recently from cDNA cloning and sequencing. The same approach has now enabled us to deduce, for the first time, that FN has a 26 amino acid signal peptide and that it undergoes proteolytic processing at its N-terminus to eliminate a 5 amino acid pro-sequence (Ser-Lys-Ser-Lys-Arg). The signal sequence matches the consensus format, while this pro-sequence is a distinctive, very hydrophilic and basic peptide.