Structural studies on equine glycoprotein hormones. Amino acid sequence of equine lutropin beta-subunit

The amino acid sequence was determined for equine lutropin beta (eLH beta). Large fragments were derived from reduced, carboxymethylated eLH beta by digestion with Staphylococcus aureus V8 protease, by cyanogen bromide cleavage, and by cleavage of acid-labile Asp-Pro bonds. The fragments were purified by gel filtration and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The fragments were sequenced by automated Edman degradation to establish the primary structure of eLH beta. Some peptides were further digested with chymotrypsin and the resulting peptides purified by HPLC. In addition to sequencing by automated Edman degradation, these were also sequenced by the complementary 5-dimethylaminonaphthalene-1-sulfonyl-Edman procedure which enabled us to directly identify glycosylated amino acids. The eLH beta subunit is a glycoprotein of 149 amino acids containing both N- and O-linked oligosaccharides. It possesses a COOH-terminal extension similar to that seen in human chorionic gonadotropin. Carboxypeptidase Y digestions suggest that the COOH terminus is blocked by glycosylation. Interestingly, the amino acid sequence of eLH beta is identical to that of equine chorionic gonadotropin beta (Sugino, H., Bousfield, G. R., Moore, W. T., and Ward, D. N. (1987)J. Biol. Chem. 262, 8603-8609).