Group of Animal Innate Immunity, State Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Pest Insects and Rodents, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1 Beichen West Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100101, China.
Nat Commun. 2014;5:3154. doi: 10.1038/ncomms4154.
Drosomycin-type antifungal peptides (DTAFPs) are key innate immunity components of Drosophila and plants and confer resistance to fungal infection. Here we report the discovery of a multigene family of DTAFPs, comprising of 15 members (termed cremycin-1 to crymycin-15), in the fruit nematode Caenorhabditis remanei. Cremycins share highly similar amino-acid sequences and identical precursor organization to drosomycins. Of the 15 cremycin genes, 10 are found to be transcriptionally active and 6 are upregulated after fungal challenge. Synthetic cremycin-5 is active on filamentous fungi and a series of clinical isolates of human pathogenic yeasts and exhibits low haemolysis and high serum stability. The specific distribution of DTAFPs in a clade of moulting animals (Ecdysozoa), including Arthropoda, Nematoda and Tardigrada, together with the widespread presence in plants but the absence in fungi and protozoans, provides evidence for horizontal transfer of a disease resistance gene between plants and ecdysozoans.
Drosomycin 型抗真菌肽 (DTAFPs) 是果蝇和植物中先天免疫的关键组成部分，赋予其对真菌感染的抗性。在这里，我们报告了在水果线虫 Caenorhabditis remanei 中发现的 DTAFP 多基因家族，由 15 个成员组成（称为 cremycin-1 至 crymycin-15）。Cremycins 具有高度相似的氨基酸序列和与 drosomycins 相同的前体组织。在 15 个 cremycin 基因中，有 10 个被证实具有转录活性，并且在真菌攻击后有 6 个上调。合成的 cremycin-5 对丝状真菌和一系列人类致病性酵母的临床分离株具有活性，并且具有低溶血和高血清稳定性。DTAFPs 在蜕皮动物（Ecdysozoa）的一个分支中的特异性分布，包括节肢动物、线虫和缓步动物，以及在植物中的广泛存在而在真菌和原生动物中的缺失，为植物和蜕皮动物之间的疾病抗性基因的水平转移提供了证据。
