New data on Botryllus schlosseri AMP: a transcript analysis

The innate immune system provides an immediate response against infections in animals and plants. Endogenous antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are essential effector molecules of this first line of defence allowing the direct killing of invading micro-organisms. Moreover AMPs have attracted increasing interest because of their potential as new antibiotics. To date various natural peptides from all kinds of organisms and synthetic derivatives have been characterized for their potential use as novel therapeutics. However, the number of candidate peptides undergoing preclinical or clinical evaluation is still very low. Marine invertebrates are source of several AMPs and some of these have been isolated and characterized from different urochordate such as Styela plicata (clavanins and styelins) and Ciona intestinalis (Ci-MAM). In the colonial ascidian B. schlosseri, exploiting the transcriptome and the genome, we have been able to identify a styelin-like AMP. We also carried out some preliminary experiments to investigate the chemical properties and the expression pattern of such gene in the presence of different PAMPs.