Protein and cDNA sequence of a glycine-rich, dimethylarginine-containing region located near the carboxyl-terminal end of nucleolin (C23 and 100 kDa).

By a combination of protein chemistry and recombinant DNA methods a glycine-rich region was found to be located near the carboxyl terminus of the nucleolar specific phosphoprotein, nucleolin, from Novikoff hepatoma (protein C23) and Chinese hamster ovary cells (100-kDa nucleolar protein). A sequence of 192 amino acid residues was derived from partial sequences of cyanogen bromide and N-bromosuccinimide fragments of protein C23 and deduced protein sequence from Chinese hamster ovary cell 100-kDa cDNA sequences. The 66 residues sequenced by protein methods were identical to the corresponding residues deduced by DNA sequencing. The multiple residues of NG,NG-dimethylarginine (DMA) contained in the nucleolin polypeptide were found to be limited to a segment of less than 10 kDa near the carboxyl-terminal end of the protein. This segment also contained internally repeated sequences (e.g. 7 copies of the sequence Gly-Gly-Arg-Gly-Gly were found) which were unrelated to sequences closer to the amino-terminal end. Most arginine residues in this region were surrounded by 2 or 3 glycine residues and were relatively close in sequence to phenylalanine residues.