title: In silico study of whey-acidic-protein domain containing oral protease inhibitors.
abstract: Since whey-acidic-protein domain (WAP) containing protease inhibitors such as SLPI (secretory leukocyte protease inhibitor) and elafin (elastase-specific inhibitor) have antimicrobial activities and are thought to play critical roles in mucosal defenses, we are interested in these protease inhibitors. By accessing the Novartis mouse expression database, we found that the four WAP family members, SLPI, WFDC2, WFDC5, and WFDC12, are highly expressed in the oral organs, such as the trachea, tongue, and salivary glands. Since their WAP domains play pivotal roles in the antimicrobial and/or antiprotease activities and their application in therapeutics are expected to have practical value, we collected 98 WAP homologues and tried to predict their physiological functions by analyzing their amino acid sequence structures. From the multiple alignments of amino acid sequences, we predicted that most of the mammalian N-terminal WAP domains derived from SLPIs and the WAP domains derived from WFDC12s have antimicrobial activities, whereas most of the mammalian C-terminal WAP domains derived from SLPIs and the WAP domains derived from elafins have antiprotease activities. From the phylogenetic tree, it was revealed that an ancestral WAP protein initially diverged into the WFDC5-C WAP domain and the ancestral protein for the other WAP domains. Subsequently, the ancestral protein for the other WAP domains diverged into two ancestral proteins, one for elafin and SLPI-C WAP domains and the other, for SLPI-N, WFDC15b, WFDC12, and WFDC5-N WAP domains, respectively. Moreover, the tree indicated that the WFDC5-N and WFDC12 WAP domains share a common ancestral protein.
authors: Hirakata Ryoikuen, Tsudahigashi 2-1-1, Hirakata, Osaka 573-0122, Japan.
authors: Yoshiko
authors: Y
authors: Idoji
authors: Yuko
authors: Y
authors: Watanabe
authors: Akifumi
authors: A
authors: Yamashita
authors: Kyosuke
authors: K
authors: Yamanishi
authors: Seiji
authors: S
authors: Nishiguchi
authors: Kazunori
authors: K
authors: Shimada
authors: Teruo
authors: T
authors: Yasunaga
authors: Hiromichi
authors: H
authors: Yamanishi
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000235:genetics; D053492:Elafin / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D008894:Milk Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D011480:Protease Inhibitors / Q000737:chemistry*; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D053491:Proteinase Inhibitory Proteins, Secretory / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D053481:Secretory Leukocyte Peptidase Inhibitor / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D016415:Sequence Alignment
chemical_list: D018076:DNA, Complementary; D053492:Elafin; D008894:Milk Proteins; D011480:Protease Inhibitors; D053491:Proteinase Inhibitory Proteins, Secretory; D053481:Secretory Leukocyte Peptidase Inhibitor; C506815:Slpi protein, mouse; C024471:whey acidic proteins