ventricular natriuretic peptide, eel

Description

VNP was purified in 1991 from the eel ventricle. Deduced eel proVNP consists of 128 aa residues. Bioactive mature eel VNP (36 aa residues) is located at the C-terminus. Eel VNP has 17 aa residues of an intramolecular ring, from which a long C-terminal tail sequence (14 aa residues) extends. The C-terminally truncated form, VNP1–25, is also present in eel plasma. An NP gene abundantly expressed in the chicken kidney, named renal NP (RNP), may be an ortholog of VNP.

Structure and conformation

Deduced eel proVNP consists of 128 aa residues. Bioactive mature eel VNP (36 aa residues) is located at the C-terminus. Eel VNP has 17 aa residues of an intramolecular ring, from which a long C-terminal tail sequence (14 aa residues) extends. The C-terminally truncated form, VNP1–25, is also present in eel plasma. An NP gene abundantly expressed in the chicken kidney, named renal NP (RNP), may be an ortholog of VNP. The sequence identity is >75% in the mature sequences of the eel, salmon, sturgeon, and bichir VNP. The VNP gene is absent in the genome database of several advanced teleost species (e.g., the medaka and pufferfish) and other advanced classes of vertebrates, except in birds (the chicken).