Bomanin

Bomanin
The fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster
Identifiers
Organism	Drosophila melanogaster
Symbol	Bom
UniProt	P82706
Search for Structures Swiss-model Domains InterPro

The Bomanin gene family encodes a group of immune peptides that are essential for Drosophila fruit fly defence against infection by many pathogens. ^{[1] [2]}

The gene family is named in honour of Hans G. Boman, for his contributions to innate immunity and the discovery of antimicrobial peptides. ^[1] While Bomanins are essential for survival after infection by many kinds of Gram-positive bacteria and pathogenic fungi, the reason they are key to defence may be because Bomanins promote resilience to pathogen toxins, and not because they directly suppress pathogens. ^[3] However fly hemolymph (blood) loses its fungicidal activity in the absence of Bomanins, suggesting these peptides are also somehow needed to turn the hemolymph into an antimicrobial environment. ^[4]

See also

• Hans G. Boman
• Antimicrobial peptides
• Drosomycin
• Metchnikowin
• Baramicin
• Daisho
• The Toll immunity signalling pathway

References

1. Clemmons AW, Lindsay SA, Wasserman SA (April 2015). Silverman N (ed.). "An effector Peptide family required for Drosophila toll-mediated immunity". PLOS Pathogens. 11 (4) e1004876. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1004876 . PMC   4411088 . PMID   25915418.
2. Hanson MA, Dostálová A, Ceroni C, Poidevin M, Kondo S, Lemaitre B (February 2019). "Synergy and remarkable specificity of antimicrobial peptides in vivo using a systematic knockout approach". eLife. 8 e44341. doi: 10.7554/eLife.44341 . PMC   6398976 . PMID   30803481.
3. Xu R, Lou Y, Tidu A, Bulet P, Heinekamp T, Martin F, et al. (January 2023). "The Toll pathway mediates Drosophila resilience to Aspergillus mycotoxins through specific Bomanins". EMBO Reports. 24 (1) e56036. doi:10.15252/embr.202256036. PMC   9827548 . PMID   36322050.
4. Lindsay SA, Lin SJ, Wasserman SA (2018). "Short-Form Bomanins Mediate Humoral Immunity in Drosophila". Journal of Innate Immunity. 10 (4): 306–314. doi:10.1159/000489831. PMC   6158068 . PMID   29920489.