LUTEINIZING-HORMONE CHORIONIC-GONADOTROPIN BIOACTIVITY IN THE COMMON MARMOSET (CALLITHRIX-JACCHUS) IS DUE TO A CHORIONIC-GONADOTROPIN MOLECULE WITH A STRUCTURE INTERMEDIATE BETWEEN HUMAN CHORIONIC-GONADOTROPIN AND HUMAN LUTEINIZING-HORMONE

Abstract

Chorionic gonadotropin (CG), a pregnancy-specific heterodimeric hormone found in primates, is responsible for CL rescue with pregnancy maintenance. Of the primates, the human and baboon gene sequences are the only structures so far determined. In order to study the structure and function of CG in other primates, we have isolated and sequenced the coding regions for the two subunits of marmoset CG (mCG) by the reverse transcription/polymerase chain reaction method. Study of multiple clones confirmed a high degree of homology with the human sequences (88% and 80% for the alpha and beta nucleotide sequences, respectively). Marmoset CG alpha has an extra four amino acids compared to hCG alpha, w..