e. NFDEIDRSGFA and SSEDMDRLGFA, were characterized [30]; NFDEIDRSGFA has also been sequenced via MS-analysis from the crab Cancer borealis [21], where it too does not correspond to any of the known full-length orcokinin isoforms. Given this discrepancy, we became interested in determining the origin of NFDEIDRSGFA and SSEDMDRLGFA in the lobster. In the data that follow, we present evidence showing that extraction with acidified methanol yields the C-terminally methylated peptides NFDEIDRSGFG-OMe and SSEDMDRLGFG-OMe, and find no evidence to support the detection of NFDEIDRSGFA and SSEDMDRLGFA in H. americanus, suggesting that these

peptides have been mis-identified. Using high resolution MALDI-Fourier transform mass spectrometry measurements, sustained off-resonance irradiation www.selleckchem.com/products/CP-690550.html collision-induced dissociation (SORI-CID), high performance liquid chromatography-Chip nano-electrospray ionization quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (HPLC Chip–nanoESI Q-TOF MS), and isotopic labeling, we also show that methylation at the C-terminus of these truncated peptides arises as the result of a highly selective peptide modification during neuropeptide extraction from certain

crustacean tissue samples in the presence of methanol, a solvent commonly used for peptide extraction. Furthermore, we show that this modification is not a simple chemical artifact, but rather is likely an enzymatically mediated process involving methanol. Taken collectively, the data presented in this study demonstrate the need to consider that unexpected neuropeptide selleckchem modifications may occur in the process of neuropeptide extraction from tissue samples, giving rise to artifactual isoforms that can be misconstrued as naturally occurring, native isoforms. American lobsters, H. americanus, were purchased from local suppliers (Brunswick and Harpswell, ME, USA) and maintained

in aerated seawater tanks at 8–10 °C. Prior to dissection, animals were anaesthetized by packing in ice for approximately 30 min. After icing, the eyestalk ganglia were isolated via manual microdissection in chilled (8–10 °C) physiological saline. For some experiments, eyestalk ganglia were divided in a regional specific manner to allow for analysis of the individual DNA ligase regions of this system, i.e. the medulla terminalis (MT), which includes the X-organ (XO), the medulla interna (MI), the medulla externa (ME), the lamina ganglionaris (LG), and the sinus gland (SG), a neuroendocrine organ derived from the XO somata ( Fig. 1). Techniques used for the isolation of entire stomatogastric ganglion (STG) and commissural ganglion (CoG), or small pieces of the supraesophageal ganglion (brain), or pericardial organ (PO) have been described [10] and [11]. For direct tissue MALDI-FTMS, dissected tissues were rinsed sequentially in two 12 μL droplets of 0.