Disease relevance of Annetocin

• Injection of annetocin, Lys-conopressin, and (3)F-annetocin caused both egg-laying-like behavior and reduction of body weight in the animals, but (3)Y-annetocin induced neither [1].

High impact information on Annetocin

• Sequence analyses of the deduced precursor polypeptide revealed that the annetocin precursor is composed of three segments: a signal peptide, an annetocin sequence flanked by a Gly C-terminal amidation signal and a Lys-Arg dibasic processing site, and a neurophysin domain, similar to other oxytocin family precursors [2].
• Furthermore, in situ hybridization experiments demonstrated that the annetocin gene is expressed exclusively in neurons of the central nervous system predicted to be involved in regulation of reproductive behavior [2].
• Annetocin may be involved in osmoregulation of the animal through nephridial function [3].
• The future use of annetocin as a molecular genetic biomarker in terrestrial ecotoxicology is discussed [4].
• Measurement of annetocin gene expression: a new reproductive biomarker in earthworm ecotoxicology [4].

Biological context of Annetocin

• These results suggest that annetocin plays some key role in triggering stereotyped egg-laying behaviors in terrestrial or fresh-water annelids that have the clitella [5].
• Administration of annetocin to the AnR expressed in Xenopus oocytes induced a calcium-dependent signal transduction [6].

Anatomical context of Annetocin

• Dose-response relationship of the effects of annetocin and its related peptides on the annelid and mammalian systems shows that amino acid residue at the third position of these peptides is important for exertion of excitatory action on the smooth muscle systems [7].
• On the other hand, oxytocin, vasotocin, Arg-vasopressin, Lys-vasopressin, and tocinoic acid caused spontaneous contractions of isolated rat uterine preparations, where the potency was in this order, while annetocin and MIF exerted no oxytocic activity on the uterus [7].

Gene context of Annetocin

• Effects of annetocin, an oxytocin-related peptide isolated from the earthworm Eisenia foetida, and some putative neurotransmitters on gut motility of the earthworm [7].

Analytical, diagnostic and therapeutic context of Annetocin

• Optimization of a real-time quantitative PCR procedure exploiting the fluorescent DNA-binding molecule, Sybr Green, has allowed the measurement of annetocin transcript levels over a range covering six orders of magnitude [4].

References