Electrophoretic and immunological characterization of rat neurophysin

1. The electrophoretic properties of rat posterior pituitary proteins have been compared on starch gel with those of bovine and porcine neurophysins. 2. [(35)S]-Cysteine was injected into the supraoptic nucleus of male rats and 16-24h later the distribution of labelled neural-lobe protein in starch and polyacrylamide gels was determined. In both systems a single major protein component was found to contain more than 80% of the total recovered radioactivity. Between 5 and 10% of the radioactivity was found in a minor component in polyacrylamide gel. 3. In agar, microimmuno-diffusion and -electrophoresis of the rat neural-lobe proteins gave a single arc with neurophysin antiserum, and after starch-gel electrophoresis this arc was shown to be due to the major labelled component. 4. The molecular weights of the rat neural-lobe proteins were estimated by polyacrylamide-gel electrophoresis in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulphate. The molecular weight of the major labelled component was found to be 12000. 5. It is concluded that the rat neurophysin consists of one major and possibly one minor component.