Process and primers for identifying nucleic acids encoding A-lineage conotoxin peptides

摘要

The invention is directed to A-lineage conotoxin peptides, which are conotoxin peptides that have strong homology in the signal sequence and the 3'-untranslated region of the genes coding for these peptides to the sequences in the alpha -conotoxin peptides. The A-lineage conotoxin peptides include the alpha -conotoxin peptides, the alpha -conotoxin-like peptides and the kappa -conotoxin peptides, described further below. The alpha -conotoxin-peptides generally share a "core" sequence motif. This core sequence is termed the alpha +E,fra 3/5+EE core and is represented as Cys-Cys-Xaa-Xaa-Xaa-Cys-Xaa-Xaa-Xaa-Xaa-Xaa-Cys (SEQ ID NO: 1). The alpha -conotoxin-like peptides generally share a core sequence termed the alpha +E,fra 4/7+EE core and is represented as Cys-Cys-Xaa-Xaa-Xaa-Xaa-Cys-Xaa-Xaa-Xaa-Xaa-Xaa-Xaa-Xaa-Cys (SEQ ID NO: 2). The kappa -conotoxin peptides generally have a core sequence termed the kappa 7/2/1/3 core and is represented as Cys-Cys-Xaa-Xaa-Xaa-Xaa-Xaa-Xaa-Xaa-Cys-Xaa-Xaa-Cys-Xaa-Cys-Xaa-Xaa-Xaa-Cys (SEQ ID NO: 3).