Min Gi-Sik, Sarkar Indra Neil, Siddall Mark E
Department of Biological Sciences, Inha University, Yonghyun-dong, Nam-Gu, Incheon 402-751, Korea.
J Parasitol. 2010 Dec;96(6):1211-21. doi: 10.1645/GE-2496.1. Epub 2010 Jul 22.
A variety of bioactive proteins from medicinal leeches, like species of Hirudo , have been characterized and evaluated for their potential therapeutic biomedical properties. However, there has not previously been a comprehensive attempt to fully characterize the salivary transcriptome of a medicinal leech that would allow a clearer understanding of the suite of polypeptides employed by these sanguivorous annelids and provide insights regarding their evolutionary origins. An Expressed Sequence Tag (EST) library-based analysis of the salivary transcriptome of the North American medicinal leech, Macrobdella decora, reveals a complex cocktail of anticoagulants and other bioactive secreted proteins not previously known to exist in a single leech. Transcripts were identified that correspond to each of saratin, bdellin, destabilase, hirudin, decorsin, endoglucoronidase, antistatin, and eglin, as well as to other previously uncharacterized predicted serine protease inhibitors, lectoxin-like c-type lectins, ficolin, disintegrins and histidine-rich proteins. This work provides a lens into the richness of bioactive polypeptides that are associated with sanguivory. In the context of a well-characterized molecular phylogeny of leeches, the results allow for preliminary evaluation of the relative evolutionary origins and historical conservation of leech salivary components. The goal of identifying evolutionarily significant residues associated with biomedically significant phenomena implies continued insights from a broader sampling of blood-feeding leech salivary transcriptomes.
来自药用水蛭（如医蛭属的物种）的多种生物活性蛋白质已得到表征，并对其潜在的治疗性生物医学特性进行了评估。然而，此前尚未有人全面尝试充分表征药用蛭的唾液转录组，以便更清楚地了解这些吸血环节动物所使用的多肽组合，并深入了解其进化起源。基于表达序列标签（EST）文库对北美药用蛭红蛭（Macrobdella decora）唾液转录组的分析揭示了一种复杂的抗凝剂和其他生物活性分泌蛋白混合物，这些蛋白此前并不被认为存在于单一水蛭中。已鉴定出与沙雷肽酶、蛭素、去稳定酶、水蛭素、饰变素、内切葡糖醛酸酶、抗抑素、依格林，以及其他先前未表征的预测丝氨酸蛋白酶抑制剂、凝集素样C型凝集素、纤维胶凝蛋白、解整合素和富含组氨酸的蛋白质相对应的转录本。这项工作为与吸血相关的生物活性多肽的丰富性提供了一个视角。在水蛭已充分表征的分子系统发育背景下，这些结果有助于对水蛭唾液成分的相对进化起源和历史保守性进行初步评估。识别与生物医学重要现象相关的具有进化意义的残基这一目标意味着，需要从更广泛的吸血水蛭唾液转录组样本中持续获得深入见解。
