Suntory Limited

Hiroyuki Minakata

Kyoko Kuroda

Eiko Iwakoshi

Terumi Nakajima

Junko Hashino

R&eacute;gine Romi-Lebrun

Bruno Lebrun

A novel peptide found as gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) in octopuses, a member of mollusks. The structure and the activities of the peptide have been unraveled. The peptide finds use as a reagent used in the studies of correlations between the structure and the activities of GnRH and the information processing mechanisms of the nervous systems in higher animals. It can also serve as a base compound in the development of pesticides and drugs. The peptide has the GnRH activity and has the following amino acid sequence (I):&#x3c;Glu-Zaa-Zaa-His-Zaa-Ser-Zaa-Zaa-Zaa-Zaa-Pro-Gly-NH(SEQ ID NO: 7) &#x2003;&#x2003;(I)wherein &#x3c;Glu represents pyroglutamic acid and Zaa represents any amino acid. Specifically, the peptide has the following amino acid sequence (1):&#x3c;Glu-Asn-Tyr-His-Phe-Ser-Asn-Gly-Trp-His-Pro-Gly-NH(SEQ ID NO: 1) &#x2003;&#x2003;(1)wherein &#x3c;Glu represents pyroglutamic acid.

Gonadotropin-releasing hormone, precursor peptides thereof and genes encoding the same

Tachykinin peptide isolated and purified from the posterior salivary gland of the mollusk. The tachykinin peptide provides a new approach for developing medicaments and pesticides through studies on the structural activity correlation at the molecular level, is characterized by:

Tachykinin peptides, precursor peptides thereof and genes encoding the same

Neuropeptides originating in scorpion

Growing community of inventors

Kawabe-gun, Japan

Hiroyuki Minakata