The C-terminal T peptide of cholinesterases: structure, interactions, and influence on protein folding and secretion

J Mol Neurosci. 2006;30(1-2):233-6. doi: 10.1385/JMN:30:1:233.

Abstract

Mammalian cholinergic tissues mostly express the T splice variant of acetylcholinesterase, in which the catalytic domain is associated with a C-terminal peptide of 40 residues, called the t peptide (Massoulié, 2002). Homologous t peptides exist in all vertebrate cholinesterases, acetylcholinesterases (AChEs), and butyrylcholinesterases (BChEs): they contain a series of seven conserved aromatic residues, including three tryptophans, and a cysteine at position-4 of their C-terminus. The major AChE isozyme of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans also contains a similar peptide. Although the C-terminal t peptides do not seem to affect the catalytic activity of cholinesterases, they determine their physiological function, because they allow cholinesterase subunits of type T to form oligomers and to associate with structural anchoring proteins. When reduced to their catalytic domain, AChE subunits without a t peptide are active but remain monomeric and soluble.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Cholinesterases / chemistry
  • Cholinesterases / metabolism*
  • Humans
  • Models, Molecular
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Multiprotein Complexes / chemistry
  • Peptide Fragments / chemistry*
  • Protein Folding
  • Sequence Alignment
  • Sequence Homology, Amino Acid

Substances

  • Multiprotein Complexes
  • Peptide Fragments
  • Cholinesterases