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Insect antimicrobial peptides act synergistically to inhibit a trypanosome parasite.
- Source :
-
Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences [Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci] 2016 May 26; Vol. 371 (1695). - Publication Year :
- 2016
-
Abstract
- The innate immune system provides protection from infection by producing essential effector molecules, such as antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) that possess broad-spectrum activity. This is also the case for bumblebees, Bombus terrestris, when infected by the trypanosome, Crithidia bombi Furthermore, the expressed mixture of AMPs varies with host genetic background and infecting parasite strain (genotype). Here, we used the fact that clones of C. bombi can be cultivated and kept as strains in medium to test the effect of various combinations of AMPs on the growth rate of the parasite. In particular, we used pairwise combinations and a range of physiological concentrations of three AMPs, namely Abaecin, Defensin and Hymenoptaecin, synthetized from the respective genomic sequences. We found that these AMPs indeed suppress the growth of eight different strains of C. bombi, and that combinations of AMPs were typically more effective than the use of a single AMP alone. Furthermore, the most effective combinations were rarely those consisting of maximum concentrations. In addition, the AMP combination treatments revealed parasite strain specificity, such that strains varied in their sensitivity towards the same mixtures. Hence, variable expression of AMPs could be an alternative strategy to combat highly variable infections.This article is part of the themed issue 'Evolutionary ecology of arthropod antimicrobial peptides'.<br /> (© 2016 The Author(s).)
- Subjects :
- Animals
Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides genetics
Bees genetics
Bees metabolism
Crithidia genetics
Crithidia growth & development
Genotype
Insect Proteins genetics
Anti-Infective Agents metabolism
Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides metabolism
Bees parasitology
Crithidia physiology
Host-Parasite Interactions immunology
Insect Proteins metabolism
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 1471-2970
- Volume :
- 371
- Issue :
- 1695
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 27160603
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2015.0302