Gao Bin, Tian Caihuan, Zhu Shunyi
Group of Animal Innate Immunity, State Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Pest Insects & Rodents, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, PR China.
Peptides. 2007 Dec;28(12):2299-305. doi: 10.1016/j.peptides.2007.10.004. Epub 2007 Oct 13.
Innate immunity is the first line defense of multicellular organisms that rapidly operates to limit aggression upon exposure to pathogen microorganisms. Although the existence of some antibacterial peptides in scorpion venoms suggests that venom gland could be protected by these effector molecules, antibacterial activity of venom itself has not been assessed. In this study, we reported the antibacterial activity of the venom of Chinese scorpion Buthus martensii. Protease K digestion test indicated that it is venom peptide/protein components, as key players, which are involved in such antibacterial response. As the first step toward studying molecular mechanism of scorpion venom gland immunity, we established an infection model which supports inducible antibacterial response of scorpion venom gland. A known B. martensii antibacterial peptide gene BmKb1 was up-regulated at the transcriptional level after venom gland was challenged, suggesting its key defense role. This is further strengthened by the presence of several immune response elements in the BmKb1 promoter region. Our work thus provides the first evidence supporting the role of venom antibacterial peptides (ABPs) in controlling scorpion venom gland infection and lays a basis for characterizing related components involved in regulation of scorpion venom gland ABP gene expression.
固有免疫是多细胞生物的第一道防线，在接触病原微生物时迅速发挥作用以限制感染。尽管蝎毒中存在一些抗菌肽表明毒腺可能受到这些效应分子的保护，但毒液本身的抗菌活性尚未得到评估。在本研究中，我们报道了中华蝎东亚钳蝎毒液的抗菌活性。蛋白酶K消化试验表明，作为关键参与者，是毒液中的肽/蛋白质成分参与了这种抗菌反应。作为研究蝎毒腺免疫分子机制的第一步，我们建立了一个支持蝎毒腺诱导性抗菌反应的感染模型。已知的东亚钳蝎抗菌肽基因BmKb1在毒腺受到刺激后在转录水平上调，表明其关键的防御作用。BmKb1启动子区域中存在几个免疫反应元件进一步强化了这一点。因此，我们的工作提供了首个证据支持毒液抗菌肽（ABP）在控制蝎毒腺感染中的作用，并为表征参与蝎毒腺ABP基因表达调控的相关成分奠定了基础。
