PMID- 26817846
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20160829
LR  - 20210205
IS  - 1083-351X (Electronic)
IS  - 0021-9258 (Print)
IS  - 0021-9258 (Linking)
VI  - 291
IP  - 15
DP  - 2016 Apr 8
TI  - A "Love" Dart Allohormone Identified in the Mucous Glands of Hermaphroditic Land 
      Snails.
PG  - 7938-50
LID - 10.1074/jbc.M115.704395 [doi]
AB  - Animals have evolved many ways to enhance their own reproductive success. One 
      bizarre sexual ritual is the "love" dart shooting of helicid snails, which has 
      courted many theories regarding its precise function. Acting as a hypodermic 
      needle, the dart transfers an allohormone that increases paternity success. Its 
      precise physiological mechanism of action within the recipient snail is to close 
      off the entrance to the sperm digestion organ via a contraction of the copulatory 
      canal, thereby delaying the digestion of most donated sperm. In this study, we 
      used the common garden snailCornu aspersumto identify the allohormone that is 
      responsible for this physiological change in the female system of this 
      simultaneous hermaphrodite. The love dart allohormone (LDA) was isolated from 
      extracts derived from mucous glands that coat the dart before it is stabbed 
      through the partner's body wall. We isolated LDA from extracts using 
      bioassay-guided contractility measurement of the copulatory canal. LDA is encoded 
      within a 235-amino acid precursor protein containing multiple cleavage sites 
      that, when cleaved, releases multiple bioactive peptides. Synthetic LDA also 
      stimulated copulatory canal contractility. Combined with our finding that the 
      protein amino acid sequence resembles previously described molluscan buccalin 
      precursors, this indicates that LDA is partially conserved in helicid snails and 
      less in other molluscan species. In summary, our study provides the full 
      identification of an allohormone that is hypodermically injected via a love dart. 
      More importantly, our findings have important consequences for understanding 
      reproductive biology and the evolution of alternative reproductive strategies.
CI  - (c) 2016 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.
FAU - Stewart, Michael J
AU  - Stewart MJ
AD  - From the Genecology Research Centre, Faculty of Science, Health, Education and 
      Engineering, University of the Sunshine Coast, Maroochydore, Queensland 4558, 
      Australia.
FAU - Wang, Tianfang
AU  - Wang T
AD  - From the Genecology Research Centre, Faculty of Science, Health, Education and 
      Engineering, University of the Sunshine Coast, Maroochydore, Queensland 4558, 
      Australia.
FAU - Koene, Joris M
AU  - Koene JM
AD  - the Department of Ecological Science, Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences, Vrije 
      Universiteit, 1081HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and.
FAU - Storey, Kenneth B
AU  - Storey KB
AD  - the Institute of Biochemistry and Department of Biology, Carleton University, 
      Ottawa, Ontario K1S 5B6, Canada.
FAU - Cummins, Scott F
AU  - Cummins SF
AD  - From the Genecology Research Centre, Faculty of Science, Health, Education and 
      Engineering, University of the Sunshine Coast, Maroochydore, Queensland 4558, 
      Australia, scummins@usc.edu.au.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
DEP - 20160127
PL  - United States
TA  - J Biol Chem
JT  - The Journal of biological chemistry
JID - 2985121R
RN  - 0 (Hormones)
RN  - 0 (Peptides)
RN  - 0 (Pheromones)
SB  - IM
MH  - Amino Acid Sequence
MH  - Animals
MH  - Female
MH  - Hermaphroditic Organisms/*physiology
MH  - Hormones/chemistry/isolation & purification/*metabolism
MH  - Male
MH  - Molecular Sequence Data
MH  - Peptides/chemistry/isolation & purification/*metabolism
MH  - Pheromones/chemistry/isolation & purification/*metabolism
MH  - Reproduction
MH  - Snails/*anatomy & histology/*physiology
PMC - PMC4825001
OTO - NOTNLM
OT  - invertebrate
OT  - molecular biology
OT  - neuropeptide
OT  - peptide hormone
OT  - pheromone
OT  - proteomics
EDAT- 2016/01/29 06:00
MHDA- 2016/08/30 06:00
PMCR- 2017/04/08
CRDT- 2016/01/29 06:00
PHST- 2015/11/22 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2016/01/29 06:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2016/01/29 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2016/08/30 06:00 [medline]
PHST- 2017/04/08 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - S0021-9258(20)40763-X [pii]
AID - M115.704395 [pii]
AID - 10.1074/jbc.M115.704395 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - J Biol Chem. 2016 Apr 8;291(15):7938-50. doi: 10.1074/jbc.M115.704395. Epub 2016 
      Jan 27.