Antimicrobial peptides are widely distributed in living organisms, where they represent a constitutive defence system acting as a first line of response against infections. The number of such peptides discovered has increased rapidly in the last few years, and more than 100 have been described from different sources. So far, antimicrobial peptides containing a D-amino acid have only been found in the skin secretions of frogs belonging to the genus Bombina. In the second position of the sequence of the mature peptides either D-alloisoleucine or D-leucine were detected. The D-amino acids are derived from the corresponding L forms by an as yet unknown posttranslational reaction.
OCCURENCE AND FUNCTION OF D-AMINO ACIDS-CONTAINING PEPTIDES AND PROTEINS: ANTIMICROBIAL PEPTIDES / Mignogna, Giuseppina; Simmaco, Maurizio; Barra, Donatella. - (1998), pp. 29-36.
OCCURENCE AND FUNCTION OF D-AMINO ACIDS-CONTAINING PEPTIDES AND PROTEINS: ANTIMICROBIAL PEPTIDES.
MIGNOGNA, Giuseppina;SIMMACO, Maurizio;BARRA, Donatella
1998
Abstract
Antimicrobial peptides are widely distributed in living organisms, where they represent a constitutive defence system acting as a first line of response against infections. The number of such peptides discovered has increased rapidly in the last few years, and more than 100 have been described from different sources. So far, antimicrobial peptides containing a D-amino acid have only been found in the skin secretions of frogs belonging to the genus Bombina. In the second position of the sequence of the mature peptides either D-alloisoleucine or D-leucine were detected. The D-amino acids are derived from the corresponding L forms by an as yet unknown posttranslational reaction.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
