Relaxin

1. Relaxin is a hormone of reproduction that appears to affect parturition, uterine accommodation, and sperm motility to varying degrees in many species. 2. All relaxins have the same two chain, disulfide-linked insulin-like structure and two arginine residues in the midregion of the B chain. 3. The active relaxin molecule is produced by excision of a connecting peptide from the prohormone. 4. The biosynthetic pathways of insulin and relaxin are alike, but the relaxin prohormone is about twice as large as the corresponding proinsulin. 5. The primary structures of relaxins from apparently closely related species differ significantly in their amino acid compositions and do not fit into the traditional scheme of molecular evolution.