title: Effect of a single polymorphism in the Japanese quail NK-lysin gene on antimicrobial activity.
abstract: NK-lysins are cationic peptides that play important roles in host protection, and are an important constituent of innate immunity. We identified nine single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the NK-lysin open reading frame (ORF) from 32 Japanese quails in six strains: A, B, ND, K, P, and Y. The G to A substitution at nucleotide position 272 in the ORF resulted in a Gly (G) to Asp (D) amino acid substitution (Cj31G and Cj31D alleles). The Cj31D allele was detected in P (frequency 0.76) and Y (frequency 0.03) strains. We compared the antimicrobial activities of four synthetic peptides from the helix 2-loop-helix 3 region of avian NK-lysins against Escherichia coli: Cj31G and Cj31D from quail and Gg29N and Gg29D from chicken. The antimicrobial activities of the four peptides decreased in the following order: Gg29N > Cj31G > Gg29D > Cj31D (P < 0.05). Although there were no differences in the predicted secondary structure of the Cj31G and Cj31D, the net charge of the Cj31G was higher than that of Cj31D. These data indicated that the antimicrobial activity of CjNKL is influenced by net charge, similar to that which has been observed in chicken.
authors.affiliation: NODAI Genome Research Center, Tokyo University of Agriculture, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Taichiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ishige
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Science, Tokyo University of Agriculture, Atsugi, Japan.
authors.forename: Hiromi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hara
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Science, Tokyo University of Agriculture, Atsugi, Japan.
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hirano
authors.affiliation: NODAI Genome Research Center, Tokyo University of Agriculture, Tokyo, Japan.|Department of Bioscience, Tokyo University of Agriculture, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Tomohiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kono
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Science, Tokyo University of Agriculture, Atsugi, Japan.
authors.forename: Kei
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hanzawa
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D019943:Amino Acid Substitution / Q000235:genetics; D000818:Animals; D023181:Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology / Q000494:pharmacology; D002645:Chickens; D003370:Coturnix / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology*; D024881:Drug Resistance, Bacterial; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000187:drug effects; D056726:Genetic Association Studies / Q000662:veterinary*; D007113:Immunity, Innate / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D016366:Open Reading Frames / Q000235:genetics; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide / Q000235:genetics*; D011510:Proteolipids / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: D023181:Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides; C093238:NK-lysin; D011510:Proteolipids
keywords: Japanese quail; NK-lysin; antimicrobial activity; net charge; polymorphism