Reptilian beta-defensins: Expanding the repertoire of known crocodylian peptides
Por:
Santana, Felix L., Estrada, Karel, Ortiz, Ernesto, Corzo, Gerardo
Publicada:
1 feb 2021
Resumen:
One of the major families of host defense peptides (HDPs) in vertebrates
are beta-defensins. They constitute important components of innate
immunity and have remained an interesting topic of research for more
than two decades. While many beta-defensin sequences in mammals and
birds have been identified and their properties and functions
characterized, beta-defensin peptides from other groups of vertebrates,
particularly reptiles, are still largely unexplored. In this review, we
focus on reptilian beta-defensins and summarize different aspects of
their biology, such as their genomic organization, evolution, structure,
and biological activities. Reptilian beta-defensin genes exhibit similar
genomic organization to birds and their number and gene structure are
variable among different species. During the evolution of reptiles,
several gene duplication and deletion events have occurred and the
functional diversification of beta-defensins has been mainly driven by
positive selection. These peptides display broad antimicrobial activity
in vitro, but a deeper understanding of their mechanisms of action in
vivo, including their role as immunomodulators, is still lacking.
Reptilian beta-defensins constitute unique polypeptide sequences to
expand our current understanding of innate immunity in these animals and
elucidate core biological functions of this family of HDPs across
amniotes.
Filiaciones:
Santana, Felix L.:
Departamento de Medicina Molecular y Bioprocesos, Instituto de Biotecnología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, A.P. 510-3, Cuernavaca Mor., 62250, Mexico
Estrada, Karel:
Unidad de Secuenciación Masiva y Bioinformática, Instituto de Biotecnología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico
Ortiz, Ernesto:
Departamento de Medicina Molecular y Bioprocesos, Instituto de Biotecnología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, A.P. 510-3, Cuernavaca Mor., 62250, Mexico
Corzo, Gerardo:
Departamento de Medicina Molecular y Bioprocesos, Instituto de Biotecnología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, A.P. 510-3, Cuernavaca Mor., 62250, Mexico
Univ Nacl Autonoma Mexico, Dept Med Mol & Bioproc, Inst Biotecnol, AP 510-3, Cuernavaca 62250, Morelos, Mexico
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