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Immunoelectron microscopical studies of regulatory peptides in the nervous system of the monogenean parasite, Diclidophora merlangi

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2009

G. P. Brennan
Affiliation:
Comparative Neuroendocrinology Research Group, Schools of Biology and Biochemistry and Clinical Medicine, The Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN, UK
D. W. Halton*
Affiliation:
Comparative Neuroendocrinology Research Group, Schools of Biology and Biochemistry and Clinical Medicine, The Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN, UK
A. G. Maule
Affiliation:
Comparative Neuroendocrinology Research Group, Schools of Biology and Biochemistry and Clinical Medicine, The Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN, UK
C. Shaw
Affiliation:
Comparative Neuroendocrinology Research Group, Schools of Clinical Medicine, The Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN, UK
C. F. Johnston
Affiliation:
Comparative Neuroendocrinology Research Group, Schools of Clinical Medicine, The Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN, UK
S. Moore
Affiliation:
Peninsula Laboratories Europe Ltd, Merseyside WA9 3AJ UK
I. Fairweather
Affiliation:
Comparative Neuroendocrinology Research Group, Schools of Biology and Biochemistry and Clinical Medicine, The Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN, UK
*
*Reprint requests to: Professor D. W. Halton, School of Biology and Biochemisty, The Queen's University, Belfast BT7 1NN, Northern Ireland, UK.

Summary

Specific antisera, directed against the highly conserved C-terminal hexapeptide amide of mammalian pancreatic poly-peptide (PP) and the invertebrate peptide FMRFamide, have been used in conjunction with post-embedding, IgG-conjugated colloidal gold immunostaining to demonstrate peptide immunoreactivity at subcellular level in the nervous system of adult Diclidophora merlangi. Gold labelling revealed that immunoreactivity for PP and FMRFamide was localized exclusively in dense-cored vesicles occupying the majority of axons in the central nervous system. Double-labelling demonstrated an apparent co-localization of PP and FMRFamide in the same dense-cored vesicles. Antigen pre-absorption experiments indicated cross-reactivity of the two antisera as unlikely, and that some if not all of the PP/FMRFamide immunostaining in the parasite was due to a neuropeptide F-like peptide.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

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References

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