Title : Amino acid sequence of human von Willebrand factor
Abstract :
The complete amino acid sequence of human von Willebrand factor ( vWF ) is presented
Most of the sequence was determined by analysis of the S-carboxymethylated protein
Some overlaps not provided by the protein sequence analysis were obtained from the sequence predicted by the nucleotide sequence of a cDNA clone [Sadler, J.E., Shelton-Inloes, B.B., Sorace, J., Harlan, M., Titani, K., & Davie, E.W. ( 1985) Proc
Natl. Acad
Sci
U.S.A. 82, 6391-6398]
The protein is composed of 2050 amino acid residues containing 12 Asn-linked and 10 Thr/Ser-linked oligosaccharide chains
One of the carbohydrate chains is linked to an Asn residue in the sequence Asn-Ser-Cys rather than the usual Asn-X-Ser/Thr sequence
The sequence of von Willebrand factor includes several regions bearing evidence of internal gene duplication of ancestral sequences
The protein also contains the tetrapeptide sequence Arg-Gly-Asp-Ser (at residues 1744-1747 ), which may be a cell attachment site , as in fibronectin
The amino- and carboxyl-terminal regions of the molecule contain clusters of half-cystinyl residues
The sequence is unique except for some homology to human complement factor B