Variations in the expressed antimicrobial peptide repertoire of northern leopard frog (Rana pipiens) populations suggest intraspecies differences in resistance to pathogens.

ABSTRACT: The northern leopard frog (Rana pipiens or Lithobates pipiens) is historically found in most of the provinces of Canada and the northern and southwest states of the United States. In the last 50 years, populations have suffered significant losses, especially in the western regions of the species range. Using a peptidomics approach, we show that the pattern of expressed antimicrobial skin peptides of frogs from three geographically separated populations are distinct, and we report the presence of four peptides (brevinin-1Pg, brevinin-1Pl, ranatuerin-2Pb, and ranatuerin-2Pc) that have not previously been found in skin secretions. The differences in expressed peptides reflect differences in the distribution of alleles for the newly described Brevinin1.1 locus in the three populations. When en

SUBMITTER: Tennessen JA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2927990 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature