Covalent structure of bovine neurophysin-II: localization of the disulfide bonds

The completed amino-acid sequence of bovine neurophysin-II, a major neurohypophyseal hormone-binding protein in the hypothalamo-neurohypophyseal complex of cows, set the stage for the localization of the disulfide bonds of this sulfur-rich molecule. Neurophysin-II was digested with subtilisin or a pepsin-trypsin mixture. The resulting peptides were subjected to first-dimensional electrophoresis at pH 6.5, oxidized with performic acid, and subjected to second-dimensional electrophoresis under identical conditions as the first-dimensional separation, but in a perpendicular direction. Cysteic acid peptides were eluted (several after additional electrophoretic purification at pH 3.5) for amino-acid composition and NH(2)- and COOH-terminal analyses. Our assignment of the seven disulfide bridges present in neurophysin-II is as follows: Cys(10)-Cys(93); Cys(13)-Cys(95); Cys(21)-Cys(27); Cys(28)-Cys(44); Cys(54)-Cys(61); Cys(67)-Cys(73); Cys(74)-Cys(79). The assignment of disulfide bridges associated with Cys(27) and Cys(28) is tentative as it is derived from evolutionary consideration. The high disulfide content reduces drastically the allowed number of biofunctional conformers of neurophysin-II. It is suggested that neurophysin-II possesses a globular topography with minimal alpha-helix structure.