title: Action mechanism and structural requirements of the antimicrobial peptides, gaegurins.
abstract: Gaegurins (GGNs) are a family of cationic, alpha-helical, antimicrobial peptides that were isolated from a Korean frog, Glandirana emeljanovi (formerly classified as Rana rugosa) and represent one of the structurally well-characterized groups. Among six gaegurins, gaegurin 4 (renamed herein esculentin-2EM), gaegurin 5 (brevinin-1EMa), and gaegurin 6 (brevinin-1EMb) have been investigated comprehensively in terms of structure-activity relationships. In this paper, we first suggest renaming of gaegurins according to a recently raised rule of systematic nomenclature. Then, the current understanding of gaegurins is reviewed by summarizing their structure-activity relationships. In particular competing arguments on gaegurins are synthetically inspected. Finally their action mechanism and structural requirements will be discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biotechnology, College of Biomedical and Health Science, Konkuk University, Chungju, Chungbuk 380-701, South Korea. wonhs@kku.ac.kr
authors.forename: Hyung-Sik
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Won
authors.forename: Su-Jin
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.forename: Bong-Jin
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D023181:Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides; D007473:Ion Channels / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010455:Peptides / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology*; D011498:Protein Precursors / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology*; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship; D009626:Terminology as Topic
chemical_list: D023181:Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides; D007473:Ion Channels; D010455:Peptides; D011498:Protein Precursors; C096396:gaegurin 4; C096397:gaegurin 5; C119329:gaegurin 6; C468569:gaegurin protein, Rana rugosa