Cholecystokinin octapeptide purified from brains of Australian marsupials

Cholecystokinin octapeptides (CCK8s) have been purified from methanol extracts of two brains from each of two Australian marsupials, Tammar Wallaby and Eastern Quoll, containing 3 nmol and 2 nmol of the peptides, respectively. Immunoreactive CCK was concentrated on QMA SepPak cartridges and purified by two successive HPLC steps on Nova C18 radial-pak cartridges. The sequence of each of the peptides is identical with that previously reported for Old World mammals (DYMGWMDF). This is in contrast to the previously reported sequence for CCK8 from the South American hystricomorphs, guinea pig and chinchilla, which differs in a substitution of valine for methionine in position 3 from the NH2-terminus. Although evolutionary history suggests that marsupials migrated from South America into Australia before the two continents separated, this peptide resembles that found in Old World mammals rather than that of South American hystricomorphs. Such molecular data are useful in assessing phylogenetic relationships among taxa.