Characterization of the antimicrobial peptide family defensins in the Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii), koala (Phascolarctos cinereus), and tammar wallaby (Macropus eugenii)
Access status:
Open Access
Type
ArticleAbstract
Defensins comprise a family of cysteine-rich antimicrobial peptides with important roles in innate and adaptive immune defense in vertebrates. We characterized alpha and beta defensin genes in three Australian marsupials: the Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii), koala (Phascolarctos ...
See moreDefensins comprise a family of cysteine-rich antimicrobial peptides with important roles in innate and adaptive immune defense in vertebrates. We characterized alpha and beta defensin genes in three Australian marsupials: the Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii), koala (Phascolarctos cinereus), and tammar wallaby (Macropus eugenii) and identified 48, 34, and 39 defensins, respectively. One hundred and twelve have the classical antimicrobial peptides characteristics required for pathogen membrane targeting, including cationic charge (between 1+ and 15+) and a high proportion ofhydrophobic residues (>30%). Phylogenetic analysis shows that gene duplication has driven unique and species-specific expansions of devil, koala, and tammar wallaby beta defensins and devil alpha defensins. Defensin genes are arranged in three genomic clusters in marsupials, whereas further duplications and translocations have occurred in eutherians resulting in four and five gene clusters in mice and humans, respectively. Marsupial defensins are generally under purifying selection, particularly residues essential for defensin structural stability. Certain hydrophobic or positively charged sites, predominantly found in the defensin loop, are positively selected, which may have functional significance in defensin-target interaction and membrane insertion.
See less
See moreDefensins comprise a family of cysteine-rich antimicrobial peptides with important roles in innate and adaptive immune defense in vertebrates. We characterized alpha and beta defensin genes in three Australian marsupials: the Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii), koala (Phascolarctos cinereus), and tammar wallaby (Macropus eugenii) and identified 48, 34, and 39 defensins, respectively. One hundred and twelve have the classical antimicrobial peptides characteristics required for pathogen membrane targeting, including cationic charge (between 1+ and 15+) and a high proportion ofhydrophobic residues (>30%). Phylogenetic analysis shows that gene duplication has driven unique and species-specific expansions of devil, koala, and tammar wallaby beta defensins and devil alpha defensins. Defensin genes are arranged in three genomic clusters in marsupials, whereas further duplications and translocations have occurred in eutherians resulting in four and five gene clusters in mice and humans, respectively. Marsupial defensins are generally under purifying selection, particularly residues essential for defensin structural stability. Certain hydrophobic or positively charged sites, predominantly found in the defensin loop, are positively selected, which may have functional significance in defensin-target interaction and membrane insertion.
See less
Date
2017-01-01Publisher
ImmunogeneticsFunding information
ARC DP140103260Licence
Copyright All Rights ReservedRights statement
Springer Nature Terms and Conditions for RightsLink Permissions Springer Customer Service Centre GmbH (the Licensor) hereby grants you a non-exclusive, world-wide licence to reproduce the material and for the purpose and requirements specified in the attached copy of your order form, and for no other use, subject to the conditions below: The Licensor warrants that it has, to the best of its knowledge, the rights to license reuse of this material. However, you should ensure that the material you are requesting is original to the Licensor and does not carry the copyright of another entity (as credited in the published version). If the credit line on any part of the material you have requested indicates that it was reprinted or adapted with permission from another source, then you should also seek permission from that source to reuse the material. Where print only permission has been granted for a fee, separate permission must be obtained for any additional electronic re-use. Permission granted free of charge for material in print is also usually granted for any electronic version of that work, provided that the material is incidental to your work as a whole and that the electronic version is essentially equivalent to, or substitutes for, the print version. A licence for 'post on a website' is valid for 12 months from the licence date. This licence does not cover use of full text articles on websites. Where 'reuse in a dissertation/thesis' has been selected the following terms apply: Print rights for up to 100 copies, electronic rights for use only on a personal website or institutional repository as defined by the Sherpa guideline (www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/). Permission granted for books and journals is granted for the lifetime of the first edition and does not apply to second and subsequent editions (except where the first edition permission was granted free of charge or for signatories to the STM Permissions Guidelines http://www.stm-assoc.org/copyright-legal-affairs/permissions/permissions-guidelines/), and does not apply for editions in other languages unless additional translation rights have been granted separately in the licence. Rights for additional components such as custom editions and derivatives require additional permission and may be subject to an additional fee. Please apply to [email protected]/[email protected] for these rights. The Licensor's permission must be acknowledged next to the licensed material in print. In electronic form, this acknowledgement must be visible at the same time as the figures/tables/illustrations or abstract, and must be hyperlinked to the journal/book's homepage. Our required acknowledgement format is in the Appendix below. Use of the material for incidental promotional use, minor editing privileges (this does not include cropping, adapting, omitting material or any other changes that affect the meaning, intention or moral rights of the author) and copies for the disabled are permitted under this licence. Minor adaptations of single figures (changes of format, colour and style) do not require the Licensor's approval. However, the adaptation should be credited as shown in Appendix below.Faculty/School
Faculty of ScienceCitation
Jones, E. A., et al. (2017). "Characterization of the antimicrobial peptide family defensins in the Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii), koala (Phascolarctos cinereus), and tammar wallaby (Macropus eugenii)." Immunogenetics 69(3): 133-143.Share