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J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 278, Issue 51, 51053-51058, December 19, 2003

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

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

From the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Centre d'Ecologie et Physiologie Energétiques, 23 rue Becquerel, F67087 Strasbourg Cedex 2, France and the ^¶Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Institut de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire, 15 rue René Descartes, F67084 Strasbourg Cedex, France

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 -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.

Received for publication, June 26, 2003 , and in revised form, September 25, 2003.

The amino acid sequences reported in this study have been deposited in the SwissProt Database (accession number(s) Sphe-1: Swiss-Prot P83429 and Sphe-2: Swiss-Prot P83430).

^* This work was supported by a grant from the Ars Cuttoli-Paul Appell fund of the Fondation de France, by the CNRS, and the French Polar Institut. The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.

To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel.: 33-3-88-10-69-00; Fax: 33-3-88-10-69-06; E-mail: cecile.thouzeau{at}c-strasbourg.fr.

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				C. Landon, C. Thouzeau, H. Labbe, P. Bulet, and F. Vovelle Solution Structure of Spheniscin, a {beta}-Defensin from the Penguin Stomach J. Biol. Chem., July 16, 2004; 279(29): 30433 - 30439. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]