Isolation and partial sequencing of a novel myotropin from the brain of the desert locust Schistocerca gregaria forsk

A neuropeptide that stimulates the motility of the cockroach hindgut has been isolated from an extract of 7000 brain - corpus cardiacum - corpora allata - suboesophageal ganglion complexes of the desert locust Schistocerca gregaria. During HPLC purification, the myotropic activity of column fractions was monitored on the isolated hindgut of Leucophaea maderae. Due to the low amount of material, this myotropic peptide - designated as schistomyostimulin or Scg-MST - could only be partially sequenced: DSRW?GPK(?). Scg-MST shows no relevant sequence similarities with other peptides from vertebrate or invertebrate sources. It is the fifteenth myotropic peptide chromatographically isolated from S. gregaria.