Abstract
The response of crustaceans to pathogens is believed to depend solely on innate, nonadaptive immune mechanisms, including phagocytosis, encapsulation, clotting, and a variety of soluble antimicrobial activities. Arthropod antimicrobial peptides, while characterized primarily from insects, also have been isolated from crustaceans. Expressed sequence tag analysis of hemocyte complementary DNA libraries from 2 species of shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei and Litopenaeus setiferus, revealed transcripts with strong sequence similarity to an 11.5-kDa antibacterial peptide (crustin Cm1) found in Carcinus maenas. Crustins were also observed to contain motifs common to proteinase inhibitors. Analysis of these cDNA libraries yielded at least 3 different isoforms of this peptide in L. vannamei (crustin Lv1-Lv3) and 3 in L. setiferus (crustin Ls1-Ls3). Further analysis of a second L. vannamei cDNA library revealed the presence of 3 more possible isoforms (crustin Lv4-Lv6), which differed from those seen in the first L. vannamei cDNA library. Genomic Southern blot analysis revealed a complex family of crustin-related sequences. However, full-length crustin appears to be encoded by a much more restricted subset of sequences within this family.
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