Baindara Piyush, Kapoor Anoop, Korpole Suresh, Grover Vishakha
CSIR-Institute of Microbial Technology, Sector 39A, Chandigarh, 160036, India.
Department of Periodontology and Oral Implantology, Sri Sukhmani Dental College and Hospital, Derabassi, Punjab, India.
World J Microbiol Biotechnol. 2017 Jun;33(6):124. doi: 10.1007/s11274-017-2291-9. Epub 2017 May 22.
The production of natural antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) is an innate immunity trait of all life forms including eukaryotes and prokaryotes. While these AMPs are usually called as defensins in eukaryotes, they are known as bacteriocins in prokaryotes. Bacteriocins are more diverse AMPs considering their varied composition and posttranslational modifications. Accordingly, this review is focused on cysteine-rich AMPs resembling eukaryotic defensins such as laterosporulin from Brevibacillus spp. and associated peptides secreted by the members of related genera. In fact, structural studies of laterosporulin showed the pattern typically observed in human defensins and therefore, should be considered as bacterial defensin. Although the biosynthesis mechanism of bacterial defensins displayed high similarities, variations in amino acid composition and structure provided the molecular basis for a better understanding of their properties. They are reported to inhibit Gram-positive, Gram-negative, non-multiplying and human pathogenic bacteria. The extreme stability is due to the presence of intra-molecular disulfide bonds in prokaryotic defensins and reveals their potential clinical and food preservation applications. Notably, they are also reported to have potential anticancer properties. Therefore, this review is focused on multitude of diverse applications of bacterial defensins, exploring the possible correlations between their structural, functional and possible biotechnological applications.
天然抗菌肽（AMPs）的产生是包括真核生物和原核生物在内的所有生命形式的一种固有免疫特性。在真核生物中，这些AMPs通常被称为防御素，而在原核生物中则被称为细菌素。考虑到细菌素的组成和翻译后修饰各不相同，它们是更为多样的AMPs。因此，本综述聚焦于富含半胱氨酸的AMPs，这些AMPs类似于真核生物防御素，如短短芽孢杆菌属的杀鲑气单胞菌素及相关属成员分泌的相关肽。事实上，杀鲑气单胞菌素的结构研究显示出了在人类防御素中通常观察到的模式，因此应被视为细菌防御素。尽管细菌防御素的生物合成机制显示出高度相似性，但氨基酸组成和结构的差异为更好地理解其特性提供了分子基础。据报道，它们能抑制革兰氏阳性菌、革兰氏阴性菌、非增殖菌和人类病原菌。原核生物防御素中分子内二硫键的存在使其具有极高的稳定性，这揭示了它们在临床和食品保鲜方面的潜在应用。值得注意的是，据报道它们还具有潜在的抗癌特性。因此，本综述聚焦于细菌防御素的多种不同应用，探讨它们的结构、功能与可能的生物技术应用之间的潜在关联。
