Hee Geun Park, Seung Su Kyung, Kwang Sik Lee, Bo Yeon Kim, Yong Soo Choi, Hyung Joo Yoon, Hyung Wook Kwon, Yeon Ho Je, Byung Rae Jin
Inhibitor cysteine knot (ICK) peptides exhibit ion channel blocking, insecticidal, and antimicrobial activities, but currently, no functional roles for bee-derived ICK peptides have been identified. In this study, a bee (Apis cerana) ICK peptide (AcICK) that acts as an antifungal peptide and as an insecticidal venom toxin was identified. AcICK contains an ICK fold that is expressed in the epidermis, fat body, or venom gland and is present as a 6.6-kDa peptide in bee venom. Recombinant AcICK peptide (expressed in baculovirus-infected insect cells) bound directly to Beauveria bassiana and Fusarium graminearum, but not to Escherichia coli or Bacillus thuringiensis...
December 2014: Developmental and Comparative Immunology