Abstract
Frog skin secretions play a significant role in defence against pathogenic microorganisms, including bacteria, fungi, parasites, enveloped viruses and so on. They are a rich source of bioactive compounds, including bufogenins, steroids, peptides, etc. To date, many peptides with various bioactivities have been found in frog skin secretions. Among these, the majority are antimicrobial peptides and a novel one of these was studied in this thesis in order to contribute to the study of biologically active peptides.In this study, the precursor-encoding cDNA sequence of a novel bioactive peptide QUB-3112 was identified in the defensive skin secretion of Hylarana guentheri by using a ‘shotgun’ cloning method. To research the biological functions of QUB-3112, it was synthesised by using solid phase peptide synthesis (SPPS) according to the translated putative mature peptide sequence. The synthetic replicate was used to perform some bioactive tests and was found to possess strong antimicrobial activity, slight anticancer activity and a relatively weak haemolytic activity.
The experiments carried out in this study only involved a narrow and superficial range of bioactivity identifications. To obtain clearer knowledge about this novel bioactive peptide, additional investigations should be warranted.
| Date of Award | 2017 |
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| Original language | English |
| Awarding Institution |
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| Supervisor | Tianbao Chen (Supervisor), Lei Wang (Supervisor), Lei Li (Supervisor) & Mei Zhou (Supervisor) |