| Autor: |
Emma Peel, Yuanyuan Cheng, Julianne T Djordjevic, Denis O'Meally, Mark Thomas, Michael Kuhn, Tania C Sorrell, Wilhelmina M Huston, Katherine Belov |
| Jazyk: |
angličtina |
| Rok vydání: |
2021 |
| Předmět: |
|
| Zdroj: |
PLoS ONE, Vol 16, Iss 4, p e0249658 (2021) |
| Druh dokumentu: |
article |
| ISSN: |
1932-6203 |
| DOI: |
10.1371/journal.pone.0249658 |
| Popis: |
Devastating fires in Australia over 2019-20 decimated native fauna and flora, including koalas. The resulting population bottleneck, combined with significant loss of habitat, increases the vulnerability of remaining koala populations to threats which include disease. Chlamydia is one disease which causes significant morbidity and mortality in koalas. The predominant pathogenic species, Chlamydia pecorum, causes severe ocular, urogenital and reproductive tract disease. In marsupials, including the koala, gene expansions of an antimicrobial peptide family known as cathelicidins have enabled protection of immunologically naïve pouch young during early development. We propose that koala cathelicidins are active against Chlamydia and other bacteria and fungi. Here we describe ten koala cathelicidins, five of which contained full length coding sequences that were widely expressed in tissues throughout the body. Focusing on these five, we investigate their antimicrobial activity against two koala C. pecorum isolates from distinct serovars; MarsBar and IPTaLE, as well as other bacteria and fungi. One cathelicidin, PhciCath5, inactivated C. pecorum IPTaLE and MarsBar elementary bodies and significantly reduced the number of inclusions compared to the control (p |
| Databáze: |
Directory of Open Access Journals |
| Externí odkaz: |
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