Human somatostatin I: sequence of the cDNA.

Abstract

RNA was isolated from a human pancreatic somatostatinoma and used to prepare a c[complementary]DNA library. After prescreening, clones containing somatostatin I sequences were identified by hybridization with an anglerfish somatostatin I-cloned cDNA probe. From the nucleotide sequence of 2 of these clones, an essentially full-length RNA sequence was deduced, including the preprosomatostatin coding region, 105 nucleotides from the 5'' untranslated region and the complete 150-nucleotide 3'' untranslated region. The coding region predicts a 116-amino acid precursor protein (MW 12,727) that contains somatostatin-14 and -28 at its COOH terminus. The predicted amino acid sequence of human somatostatin-28 is identical to that of somatostatin-28 isolated from the porcine and ovine species. A comparison of the amino acid sequences of human and anglerfish preprosomatostatin I indicated that the COOH-terminal region encoding somatostatin-14 and the adjacent 6 amino acids are highly conserved, whereas the remainder of the molecule, including the signal peptide region, is more divergent. However, many of the amino acid differences found in the pro region of the human and anglerfish proteins are conservative changes. The propeptides apparently have a similar secondary structure, which in turn may imply a biological function for this region of the molecule.