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The gene for penaeidin-5, an antimicrobial peptide comprising 55 amino acids, was isolated from the hemocyte of black tiger shrimp (Penaeus monodon). RT-PCR expression tests revealed that penaeidin-5 was produced in hemocytes, gills, the intestine and muscle. Western blot analysis confirmed the panaeidin-5 was aboundantin hemocytes, the intestine and hemolymph. Immunohistochemistry revealedpenaeidin-5 in the cuticle and gills that are considered primary defense barriers. The deduced amino acid sequence of penaeidin-5 included a proline-rich N-terminal domain and a carboxyl-domain that contained six cysteine residues. Circular dichrosim analysis revealed an α-helix in its secondary structure and the predicted 3D structure indicated two-disulfide bridges in the α-helix. Based on the sequence of penaeidin-5 peptide cDNA, synthetic penaeidin-5 was prepared to carry out functional tests. The synthetic peptide had efficient bacteriostatic and bactericidal activity against Aerococcus viridans, and also inhibited the growth of two filamentous fungi, Fusarium pisi and Fusarium oxysporum. To measure penaeidin-5 in vivo, black tiger shrimp were challenged with Vibrio alginolyticus and A. viridans. At 3 h post-challenge, penaeidin-5 was induced and bacterial numbers decreased significantly by 12 h and 24 h. more...

We appreciate being made aware of earlier published work on the cloning of zebrafish myostatin 2 (MSTN-2), nomenclature of MSTN family. In the published version of this article, we reported one zebrafish MSTN-2 cDNA (GenBank accession number: AY614000), which is different from two published zebrafish MSTN-2 according to comparison of nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequences (Fig. 1b). However, two previous published articles which identified zebrafish MSTN-2 cDNA (GenBank accession number: AY687474) [1] and gene (GenBank accession number: AY693972) [2] was not referenced in this article. We apologize for neglecting pertinent references. According to new nomenclature of myostatin family [3], we construct new phylogenetic tree including three zebrafish MSTN-2 to replace old Fig. 3. References more...