Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Cécile Thouzeau
• Yvon Le Maho
• Guillaume Froget
• Laurence Sabatier
• Céline Le Bohec
• Jules A. Hoffmann
• Philippe Bulet

Titel

Spheniscins, Avian β-Defensins in Preserved Stomach Contents of the King Penguin, Aptenodytes patagonicus

Ist Teil von

• The Journal of biological chemistry, 2003-12, Vol.278 (51), p.51053

Ort / Verlag

American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Erscheinungsjahr

2003

Quelle

Free E-Journal (出版社公開部分のみ）

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• During the last part of egg incubation in king penguins, the male can preserve undigested food in the stomach for several weeks. This ensures survival of the newly hatched chick, in cases where the return of the foraging female from the sea is delayed. In accordance with the characterization of stress-induced bacteria, we demonstrate the occurrence of strong antimicrobial activities in preserved stomach contents. We isolated and fully characterized two isoforms of a novel 38-residue antimicrobial peptide (AMP), spheniscin, belonging to the β-defensin subfamily. Spheniscin concentration was found to strongly increase during the period of food storage. Using a synthetic version of one of two spheniscin isoforms, we established that this peptide has a broad activity spectrum, affecting the growth of both pathogenic bacteria and fungi. Altogether, our data suggest that spheniscins and other, not yet identified, antimicrobial substances may play a role in the long term preservation of stored food in the stomach of king penguins.