Defensin Levels in Spider Hemolymph

Cedeño López, Alena; Schürch, Stefan; Kämpfer, Urs; Kuhn-Nentwig, Lucia Gerda (4 September 2015). Defensin Levels in Spider Hemolymph (Unpublished). In: SCS Fall Meeting. Lausanne. 04.09.2015.

Official URL: http://www.scg.ch

Spiders, like all arthropods, exclusively rely on an innate immune system localized in the hemocytes to protect against pathogen invasion. In the hemocytes of the wandering spider Cupiennius salei (C. salei), defensin expression was found to be constitutive. Defensins belong to the group of antimicrobial peptides, which appear in most taxonomic groups, and play an essential role in innate immunity. It has further been reported that during the primary immune answer of C. salei, the peptide content of hemocytes changes markedly, which may indicate the release of defensins from the hemocytes. However, no data on the peptide levels in C. salei hemolymph has so far been published.
Formerly, the involvement in the primary immune answer was considered the only function of defensins. However, recent findings strongly suggest that the importance of defensins goes far beyond. There is evidence for defensins contributing to the adaptive immune response, to angiogenesis, and furthermore to tissue repair, i.e. to a variety of essential processes in living organisms.
To date, only very little is known about the identity of C. salei defensins and their detailed mode of action. The goal of the work presented herein is the identification of hitherto unknown C. salei defensins in hemocytes and the hemolymph. Moreover, the levels of defensin expression under differential conditions are compared by the means of liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS).

Item Type:

Conference or Workshop Item (Poster)

Division/Institute:

08 Faculty of Science > Department of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences (DCBP)
08 Faculty of Science > Department of Biology > Institute of Ecology and Evolution (IEE) > Community Ecology [discontinued]

UniBE Contributor:

Cedeño López, Alena, Schürch, Stefan, Kämpfer, Urs, Kuhn-Nentwig, Lucia Gerda

Subjects:

500 Science > 570 Life sciences; biology
500 Science > 540 Chemistry
500 Science > 590 Animals (Zoology)

Language:

English

Submitter:

Stefan Schürch

Date Deposited:

02 Feb 2016 15:53

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 14:51

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/75103

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