抗菌肽是昆虫先天性免疫系统中十分重要的效应因子,近年来一直是昆虫免疫学研究的热点。家蚕作为鳞翅目昆虫的代表,其抗菌肽研究取得了长足进展。根据已经研究获得的抗菌肽基因序列在家蚕基因组中进行同源搜寻,共获得了40个家蚕抗菌肽基因。这些基因编码的多肽在大小、氨基酸组成和性质上差异很大,但基于结构性质可以分成3类:(1)具有α-螺旋结构并且缺乏半胱氨酸(cysteine,Cys)的线性抗菌肽;(2)富含脯氨酸或甘氨酸的组成性抗菌肽;(3)富含半胱氨酸的环形抗菌肽。以这3类结构作为主线,综述了家蚕抗菌肽近年来的研究进展。
Antimicrobial peptides are important effectors of the innate immune system in insects, which have remained a hot research area of insect immunology in recent years. Silkworm is a good representative insect of the order Lepidoptera. Great progress has been achieved in researches of antimicrobial peptides in silkworm. From a local BLAST search of the silkworm genome database, 40 antimicrobial peptide genes were identified. Although the peptides encoded by these genes have great differences in length, amino acid composition and property, they could be grouped into 3 categories. (1) linear peptides forming a-helices and without cysteine residue;(2) peptides rich in proline and/or glycine residues; and (3) cyclic peptides containing cysteine residues. This review presents recent advances of researches on silkworm antimicrobial peptides in lines of the above three categories.