title: Lucimycin, an antifungal peptide from the therapeutic maggot of the common green bottle fly Lucilia sericata.
abstract: We report the identification, cloning, heterologous expression and functional characterization of a novel antifungal peptide named lucimycin from the common green bottle fly Lucilia sericata. The lucimycin cDNA was isolated from a library of genes induced during the innate immune response in L. sericata larvae, which are used as therapeutic maggots. The peptide comprises 77 amino acid residues with a molecular mass of 8.2 kDa and a pI of 6.6. It is predicted to contain a zinc-binding motif and to form a random coil, lacking β-sheets or other secondary structures. Lucimycin was active against fungi from the phyla Ascomycota, Basidiomycota and Zygomycota, in addition to the oomycete Phytophtora parasitica, but it was inactive against bacteria. A mutant version of lucimycin, lacking the four C-terminal amino acid residues, displayed 40-fold lower activity. The activity of lucimycin against a number of highly-destructive plant pathogens could be exploited to produce transgenic crops that are resistant against fungal diseases.
authors.forename: Anne-Kathrin
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Pöppel
authors.forename: Aline
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Koch
authors.forename: Karl-Heinz
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Kogel
authors.forename: Heiko
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Vogel
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kollewe
authors.forename: Jochen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wiesner
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vilcinskas
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000935:Antifungal Agents / Q000378:metabolism*; D007814:Larva; D008155:Lucensomycin / Q000378:metabolism*; D010455:Peptides / Q000378:metabolism*; D020539:Sequence Analysis, Protein
chemical_list: D000935:Antifungal Agents; D010455:Peptides; D008155:Lucensomycin