Lucimycin, an antifungal peptide from the therapeutic maggot of the common green bottle fly Lucilia sericata.

Abstract

We report the identification, cloning, heterologous expression and functional characterization of a novel antifungal peptide named lucimycin from the common green bottle fly Lucilia sericata. The lucimycin cDNA was isolated from a library of genes induced during the innate immune response in L. sericata larvae, which are used as therapeutic maggots. The peptide comprises 77 amino acid residues with a molecular mass of 8.2 kDa and a pI of 6.6. It is predicted to contain a zinc-binding motif and to form a random coil, lacking β-sheets or other secondary structures. Lucimycin was active against fungi from the phyla Ascomycota, Basidiomycota and Zygomycota, in addition to the oomycete Phytophtora parasitica, but it was inactive against bacteria. A mutant version of lucimycin, lacking the four C-terminal amino acid residues, displayed 40-fold lower activity. The activity of lucimycin against a number of highly-destructive plant pathogens could be exploited to produce transgenic crops that are resistant against fungal diseases.

• Authors: Anne-Kathrin Pöppel, Aline Koch, Karl-Heinz Kogel, Heiko Vogel, Christian Kollewe, Jochen Wiesner, Andreas Vilcinskas
• Journal: Biological chemistry (Biol Chem) Vol. 395 Issue 6 Pg. 649-56 (Jun 2014) ISSN: 1437-4315 [Electronic] Germany
• PMID: 24622788 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)

Chemical References

• Antifungal Agents
• Peptides
• Lucensomycin

Topics

• Animals
• Antifungal Agents (metabolism)
• Larva
• Lucensomycin (metabolism)
• Peptides (metabolism)
• Sequence Analysis, Protein