title: Pelophylaxins: novel antimicrobial peptide homologs from the skin secretion of the Fukien gold-striped pond frog, Pelophylax plancyi fukienensis: identification by "shotgun" cDNA cloning and sequence analysis.
abstract: Amphibian skin secretions are rich in antimicrobial peptides that act as important components of an innate immune system. Here, we describe a novel "shotgun" skin peptide precursor cloning technique that facilitates rapid access to these genetically encoded molecules and effects their subsequent identification and structural characterization from the secretory peptidome. Adopting this approach on a skin secretion-derived library from a hitherto unstudied Chinese species of frog, we identified a family of novel antimicrobial peptide homologs, named pelophylaxins, that belong to previously identified families (ranatuerins, brevinins and temporins) found predominantly in the skin secretions from frogs of the genus Rana. These data further substantiate the scientifically robust nature of applying parallel transcriptome and peptidome analyses on frog defensive skin secretions that can be obtained in a non-invasive, non-destructive manner. In addition, the present data illustrate that rapid structural characterization of frog skin secretion peptides can be achieved from an unstudied species without prior knowledge of primary structures of endogenous peptides.
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy, Queen's University, 97 Lisburn Road, Belfast BT9 7BL, Northern Ireland, UK.
authors.forename: Mei
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Tianbao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Walker
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Shaw
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D029845:Amphibian Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D000818:Animals; D000890:Anti-Infective Agents / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D001483:Base Sequence; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000302:isolation & purification; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010455:Peptides / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D011898:Ranidae / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D012867:Skin / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D029845:Amphibian Proteins; D000890:Anti-Infective Agents; D018076:DNA, Complementary; D010455:Peptides