Molecular evolution of animal antimicrobial peptides: widespread moderate positive selection
- 12 October 2005
- journal article
- review article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in Journal of Evolutionary Biology
- Vol. 18 (6), 1387-1394
- https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1420-9101.2005.00925.x
Abstract
An increasing number of studies in both vertebrates and invertebrates show that the evolution of antimicrobial peptides is driven by positive selection. Because these diverse molecules show potential for therapeutic applications, they are currently the targets of much structural and functional research, providing extensive background data for evolutionary studies. In this paper, patterns of molecular evolution in antimicrobial peptide genes are reviewed. Evidence for positive selection on antimicrobial peptides includes an excess of nonsynonymous nucleotide substitutions, an excess of charge-changing amino acid substitutions, nonneutral patterns of allelic variation, and functional assays in vivo and in vitro that show improved antimicrobial effects for derived sequence variants. Positive selection on antimicrobial peptides may be as common as, but perhaps weaker than, selection on the best-known example of adaptively evolving immunity genes, the major histocompatibility complex. Thus, antimicrobial peptides present a useful and underutilized model for the study of adaptive molecular evolution.Keywords
This publication has 67 references indexed in Scilit:
- Variability and evolution of bovine β-defensin genesGenes & Immunity, 2004
- Natural selection of the major histocompatibility complex (Mhc) in Hawaiian honeycreepers (Drepanidinae)Molecular Ecology, 2004
- Evidence of Positively Selected Sites in Mammalian α-DefensinsMolecular Biology and Evolution, 2004
- PERSPECTIVE: DETECTING ADAPTIVE MOLECULAR POLYMORPHISM: LESSONS FROM THE MHCEvolution, 2003
- Single-Nucleotide Polymorphisms and Haplotype Analysis inβ-Defensin Genes in Different Ethnic PopulationsGenetic Testing, 2002
- Genetic Variants of Human β-Defensin-1 and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary DiseaseBiochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, 2002
- Expression and Evolution of the Drosophila Attacin/Diptericin Gene FamilyBiochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, 2000
- Animal antimicrobial peptides: An overviewPeptide Science, 1998
- Adaptive protein evolution at the Adh locus in DrosophilaNature, 1991
- Pattern of nucleotide substitution at major histocompatibility complex class I loci reveals overdominant selectionNature, 1988