Abstract
The complete amino acid sequences of the heavy chain and light chain of mouse submaxillary gland renin have been determined. The heavy chain consists of 288 amino acid residues having a Mr of 31,036 calculated from the sequence. The light chain contains 48 amino acid residues with a Mr of 5,458. The sequence of the heavy chain was determined by automated Edman degradations of the cyanogen bromide peptides and tryptic peptides generated after citraconylation, as well as other peptides generated therefrom. The sequence of the light chain was derived from sequence analyses of the peptides generated by cyanogen bromide cleavage or by digestion with Staphylococcus aureus protease. The sequences in the active site regions in renin containing two catalytically essential aspartyl residues 32 and 215 were found identical with those in pepsin, chymosin, and penicillopepsin. Comparison of the amino acid sequence of renin with that of porcine pepsin indicated a 42% sequence identity of the heavy chain with the amino-terminal and middle regions and a 46% identity of the light chain with the carboxyl-terminal region of the porcine pepsin sequence. Residues identical in renin and pepsin are distributed throughout the length of the molecules, suggesting a similarity in their overall structures.