Linear fish AMPs

The main linear fish AMPs are piscidins, pleurocidins, cathelicidins and pardaxins (Table 17.1) and their classification in the above mentioned groups is based on sequence homology. 

Table 17.2 Main characteristics of non-linear fish AMPs... 

Piscidins are a family of AMPs found in a fish species and show broad-spectrum activity against bacteria, fungi and viruses (Cole et al, 1997 Yin et /., 2006 Fernandes et al, 2010). These molecules have a marked amphipa-thic character, due to well-defined hydrophobic and hydrophilic regions, and most are linear peptides with less than 26 residues and a high proportion of basic amino acids (phenylalanine and isoleucine). They are unstructured in water but have a high a-helix content in dodecylphosphocholine (DPC) micelles, a structure similar to those determined for other cationic peptides involved in permeabilization of bacterial membranes (Campagna et al., 2007). 

Several studies, some of them mentioned above, have suggested that some of the antiviral mechanisms of AMPs are due to their action on host cells, rather than in parallel with their direct action to inactivate viral particles. For example, they may make fish cells more resistant to and/or protected from viral infections. Cecropins are a family of linear AMPs initially discovered in giant silk moth (//. with no members found in... 

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