title: A defensin-like antimicrobial peptide from the venoms of spider, Ornithoctonus hainana.
abstract: The defensin-like antimicrobial peptides have been characterized from various other arthropods including insects, scorpions, and ticks. But no natural spider defensin-like antimicrobial peptides have ever been isolated from spiders, except couple of cDNA and DNA sequences of five spider species revealed by previous genomic study. In this work, a defensin-like antimicrobial peptide named Oh-defensin was purified and characterized from the venoms of the spider, Ornithoctonus hainana. Oh-defensin is composed of 52 amino acid (aa) residues including six Cys residues that possibly form three disulfide bridges. Its aa sequence is MLCKLSMFGAVLGV PACAIDCLPMGKTGGSCEGGVCGCRKLTFKILWDKKFG. By BLAST search, Oh-defensin showed significant sequence similarity to other arthropod antimicrobial peptides of the defensin family. Oh-defensin exerted potent antimicrobial activities against tested microorganisms including Gram-positive bacteria, Gram-negative bacteria, and fungi. The cDNA encoding Oh-defensin precursor was also cloned from the cDNA library of O. hainana.
authors.affiliation: Department of Kidney, Southwest Hospital, The Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400038, China.
authors.forename: Hongwen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kong
authors.forename: Hanjin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Tianhua
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.forename: Feifei
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.forename: Jianmin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bian
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Haining
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yu
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D023181:Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000494:pharmacology; D001419:Bacteria / Q000187:drug effects; D001483:Base Sequence; D023082:Defensins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000494:pharmacology; D005658:Fungi / Q000187:drug effects; D006461:Hemolysis / Q000187:drug effects; D019476:Insect Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D013111:Spider Venoms / Q000737:chemistry*; D013112:Spiders
chemical_list: D023181:Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides; D023082:Defensins; D019476:Insect Proteins; D013111:Spider Venoms