title: Antimicrobial peptides from the venom gland of the social wasp Vespa tropica.
abstract: Peptide agents are regarded as potential candidates for overcoming the life-threatening resistance of pathogenic microorganisms to classic antibiotics. Accordingly, a peptidomic and genomic investigation of natural antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) can provide structure-functional information for designing peptide antibiotics with therapeutic potential. In the present study, we identified nine AMPs from the venom gland of the wasp Vespa tropica using combined methods of peptidomics and genomics. These AMPs were classified into two different families based on sequence similarity, mastoparan and vespid chemotactic peptides (VCPs), and thus named mastoparan-VT1 to -VT7, VCP-VT1 and -VT2. Among these nine AMPs, mastoparan-VT1 and VCP-VT1 are identical to peptides from other wasps. These AMPs exerted broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity against standard and clinically isolated strains of bacteria. In addition, they showed weak hemolytic activity toward human erythrocytes. Our results reveal that identical AMPs are widely distributed in different wasp venoms and might provide templates for the development of novel peptide antibiotics.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Animal Models and Human Disease Mechanisms of the Chinese Academy of Sciences & Yunnan Province, Kunming Institute of Zoology, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, 32 East Jiaochang Road, Kunming 650223, Yunnan, China; The University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
authors.forename: Xinwang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Wen-Hui
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Yun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D000890:Anti-Infective Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D015195:Drug Design; D004912:Erythrocytes / Q000187:drug effects; D006090:Gram-Negative Bacteria / Q000187:drug effects; D006094:Gram-Positive Bacteria / Q000187:drug effects; D006461:Hemolysis / Q000187:drug effects; D006801:Humans; D019476:Insect Proteins / Q000494:pharmacology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D014862:Wasp Venoms / Q000494:pharmacology*; D014863:Wasps / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D000890:Anti-Infective Agents; D019476:Insect Proteins; D014862:Wasp Venoms
keywords: Antimicrobial peptides; Chemotactic peptides; Mastoparan; Venom gland; Vespa tropica