Insect Antimicrobial Peptides: Structures, Properties and Gene Regulation

Title: Insect Antimicrobial Peptides: Structures, Properties and Gene Regulation

Volume: 12 Issue: 1

Author(s): Philippe Bulet and Reto Stocklin

Affiliation:

Keywords: antimicrobial peptides, insect immunity, microbial infection, cecropin, defensin, proline-rich, innate defense, cationic peptide

Abstract: Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are part of the armament that insects have developed to fight off pathogens. Insect AMPs are typically cationic and often made of less than 100 amino acid residues. Although their structures are diverse, most of the AMPs can be assigned to a limited number of families. The most common structures are represented by peptides assuming a α-helical conformation in organic solutions or disulfide-stabilized β-sheets with or without α- helical domains present. The diverse activity spectrum of these peptides may indicate different modes of action. Genetic analysis in the Drosophila model evidenced that multiple signal transduction pathways are activating the genes coding AMPs.

Cite this article as:

Bulet Philippe and Stocklin Reto, Insect Antimicrobial Peptides: Structures, Properties and Gene Regulation, Protein & Peptide Letters 2005; 12 (1) . https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/0929866053406011

DOI https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/0929866053406011	Print ISSN 0929-8665
Publisher Name Bentham Science Publisher	Online ISSN 1875-5305