ANTIBACTERIAL AND HEMOLYTIC PEPTIDES CONTAINING D-ALLOISOLEUCINE FROMTHE SKIN OF BOMBINA-VARIEGATA

A family of bombinin-related peptides is present in the skin of Bombin a variegata. These peptides contain 27 residues with Gly as N-terminus and display antimicrobial activity. From sequence analysis of the cDN As encoding for the corresponding peptide precursors, the presence of a novel 20-residue peptide with Ile as N-terminus was predicted. We ha ve now purified a family of hydrophobic peptides named H1-H5, whose se quences correspond to the predicted peptide with some variability in p ositions 1, 2 and 8. In particular, H3-H5 contain a D-alloisoleucine r esidue in the second position. All these peptides display antibacteria l and haemolytic activity.