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Identification of Miscellaneous Peptides from the Skin Secretion of the European Edible Frog, Pelophylax kl. Esculentus

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Abstract

The chemical compounds synthesised and secreted from the dermal glands of amphibian have diverse bioactivities that play key roles in the hosts’ innate immune system and in causing diverse pharmacological effects in predators that may ingest the defensive skin secretions. As new biotechnological methods have developed, increasing numbers of novel peptides with novel activities have been discovered from this source of natural compounds. In this study, a number of defensive skin secretion peptide sequences were obtained from the European edible frog, P. kl. esculentus, using a ‘shotgun’ cloning technique developed previously within our laboratory. Some of these sequences have been previously reported but had either obtained from other species or were isolated using different methods. Two new skin peptides are described here for the first time. Esculentin-2c and Brevinin-2Tbe belong to the Esculentin-2 and Brevinin-2 families, respectively, and both are very similar to their respective analogues but with a few amino acid differences. Further, [Asn-3, Lys-6, Phe-13] 3-14-bombesin isolated previously from the skin of the marsh frog, Rana ridibunda, was identified here in the skin of P. kl. esculentus. Studies such as this can provide a rapid elucidation of peptide and corresponding DNA sequences from unstudied species of frogs and can rapidly provide a basis for related scientific studies such as those involved in systematic or the evolution of a large diverse gene family and usage by biomedical researchers as a source of potential novel drug leads or pharmacological agents.

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Abbreviations

P.kl. Esculentus :

Pelophylax kl. esculentus

MS:

Mass spectrometry

RACE:

Rapid amplifiction of cDNA ends

LCQ:

Liquid chromatography quadrupole

ESI:

Electrospray ionization

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by National Nature Science Foundation, China (Grant No. 81402842), Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province, China (Grant No. 2015J05162), Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province, China (Grant No. 2016J01374), Fujian Provincial outstanding talents for Education and Scientific research (Grant No. JK2014016) and The doctor startup foundation of Fujian Medical University (Grant No. 2012bs002).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Pharmacy, Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, Fujian, China

    Xiaole Chen

  2. School of Integrative Medicine, Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Fuzhou, Fujian, China

    He Wang

  3. Medicine Natural Peptide Discovery Group, School of Pharmacy, Queen’s University, Belfast, BT9 7BL, Northern Ireland, UK

    Lei Wang, Mei Zhou, Tianbao Chen & Chris Shaw

Authors
  1. Xiaole Chen
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  2. He Wang
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  3. Lei Wang
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  4. Mei Zhou
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  5. Tianbao Chen
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  6. Chris Shaw
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Xiaole Chen or He Wang.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Standard

All applicable international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed.

Additional information

The nucleotide sequence of the Brevinin-2Tbe and Esculentin-2c precursors from the skin secretion of the European edible frog, Pelophylax kl. esculentus, have been deposited in the EMBL Nucleotide Sequence Database under the accession code KT437661 and KT437660.

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Chen, X., Wang, H., Wang, L. et al. Identification of Miscellaneous Peptides from the Skin Secretion of the European Edible Frog, Pelophylax kl. Esculentus . Protein J 35, 291–299 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10930-016-9672-z

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