TEMPORINS, ANTIMICROBIAL PEPTIDES FROM THE EUROPEAN RED FROG RANA-TEMPORARIA

A cDNA library from the skin of Rana temporaria has been screened usin g a cDNA fragment probe that encodes the signal peptide of the precurs or of esculentin from the skin secretion of Rana esculenta. With this approach, the cDNAs encoding the precursors of three peptides were iso lated. Subsequently, the peptides predicted from the sequence of the c loned cDNAs as well as several structurally related peptides could be isolated from the skin secretion of R. temporaria. These peptides, whi ch were named temporins, have a length of 10-13 residues and show some sequence similarity to hemolytic peptides isolated from Vespa venom [ Argiolas, A. & Pisano, J. J. (1984) J. Biol. Chem. 259, 10106-10111]. Natural and synthetic temporins have antibacterial activity against gr am-positive bacteria, but they are not hemolytic. Temporins are the sm allest antibacterial peptides hitherto found in nature.