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Olfactory specific chymotrypsin-like serine protease from the aesthetasc tegumental gland of the lobster, Homarus americanus

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Abstract

Numerous proteases and protease inhibitors are expressed in the lobster olfactory organ. One of these proteases, olfactory enriched transcript 03 (OET-03), is particularly interesting because its mRNA is expressed only in one cell type of the olfactory organ of the American lobster, Homarus americanus. We have obtained a full-length cDNA clone of OET-03. The predicted amino acid sequence is equally divided between a novel N-terminal domain and a conserved serine protease catalytic domain at the C-terminus. Heterologous expression in HEK293 cells allowed protease assays demonstrating that OET-03 cleaved a specific serine protease substrate, N-alpha benzoyl-L-arginine p-nitroanilide, but did not cleave a substrate of metalloproteases and cysteine proteases. OET-03 protease activity was significantly inhibited by the chymotrypsin-like protease inhibitor, tosyl-L-phenylalanine chloromethyl ketone, but not by the general protease inhibitor, phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride. Immunoreactivity for OET-03 was detected only in the cells previously shown to contain OET-03 mRNA. The cytoplasm of these cells was filled with enlarged smooth endoplasmic reticulum (a characteristic of secretory cells) that appeared to expand into large electron-translucent areas at the ventral end of the cell. The ventral ends of these secretory cells were apposed to phalloidin-labeled triangular structures reminiscent of the beginnings of the ducts of crustacean tegumental glands. This putative gland was found only in association with the aesthetasc sensory units of the olfactory organ, hence the name, aesthetasc tegumental gland.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. Bruce Maley, Dr. Charles Derby and Dr. Manfred Schmidt for helpful discussions.

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  1. Shannon B. Haley

    Present address: Department of Biology, 257 S. 1400 E. Rm. 201, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physiology, Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience of Sensory Systems Training Program, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, 40536-0298, USA

    Ruben Stepanyan, Shannon B. Haley & Timothy S. McClintock

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  1. Ruben Stepanyan
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Correspondence to Timothy S. McClintock.

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This work was supported by National Institutes of Health Research grant no. R01 DC002366.

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Stepanyan, R., Haley, S.B. & McClintock, T.S. Olfactory specific chymotrypsin-like serine protease from the aesthetasc tegumental gland of the lobster, Homarus americanus . Cell Tissue Res 322, 321–330 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00441-005-0022-2

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