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Identification, redesign and characterization of anuran antimicrobial peptides (From targeted DNA sequencing and database analyses to peptide antibiotics)

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are structurally diverse molecules naturally produced by most organisms, with direct antimicrobial activity against pathogens and often showing other immune-related properties. Anurans are a particularly rich source of these peptides, with ~2000 different sequences reported in Database of Anuran Defense Peptides (DADP). A novel approach for simultaneous multi-species peptide identification has been developed by exploiting the highly conserved signal peptide region to design family specific forward degenerate primers, using RNAseq data available in the Sequence Read Archive (SRA) database, and using them to selectively amplify AMP-coding transcripts from small amounts of frog skin tissue. Additionally, novel peptides have been redesigned with the help of molecular descriptors using the Mutator software that links biophysical properties of the peptides with their biological activity. This software has been trained on helical AMPs of anuran origin and may provide best results if natural peptides of anuran origin are used as input. In both cases, a number of the identified/designed peptides have been tested for antibacterial activity, toxicity and mode of action. Some of these proved to be potent antimicrobials with limited toxicity towards host cells.

Antimicrobial peptides ; Anura ; Peptide aggregation ; Membrane active peptides ; Peptide redesign ; Peptide selectivity ; Signal peptide region ; Targeted DNA sequencing

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