antimicrobial peptide-like genes in nasonia vitripennis a genomic perspective抗菌peptide-like基因nasonia vitripennis基因组的角度来看.pdfVIP

Tian et al. BMC Genomics 2010, 11:187 /1471-2164/11/187 RESEARCH ARTICLE Open Access Antimicrobial peptide-like genes in Nasonia vitripennis: a genomic perspective 1 1 2 2 1* Caihuan Tian , Bin Gao , Qi Fang , Gongyin Ye , Shunyi Zhu Abstract Background: Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are an essential component of innate immunity which can rapidly respond to diverse microbial pathogens. Insects, as a rich source of AMPs, attract great attention of scientists in both understanding of the basic biology of the immune system and searching molecular templates for anti- infective drug design. Despite a large number of AMPs have been identified from different insect species, little information in terms of these peptides is available from parasitic insects. Results: By using integrated computational approaches to systemically mining the Hymenopteran parasitic wasp Nasonia vitripennis genome, we establish the first AMP repertoire whose members exhibit extensive sequence and structural diversity and can be distinguished into multiple molecular types, including insect and fungal defensin-like peptides (DLPs) with the cysteine-stabilized a-helical and b-sheet (CSab) fold; Pro- or Gly-rich abaecins and hymenoptaecins; horseshoe crab tachystatin-type AMPs with the inhibitor cystine knot (ICK) fold; and a linear a-helical peptide. Inducible expression pattern of seven N. vitripennis AMP genes were verified, and two representative peptides were synthesized and functionally identified to be antibacterial. In comparison with Apis mellifera (Hymenoptera) and several non-Hymenopteran model insects, N. vitripennis has evolved a complex antimicrobial immune system with more genes and larger protein precursors. Three classical strategies that are likely responsible for