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Full-Text Articles in Genetics and Genomics
Tissue And Life Stage Distribution Of A Defensin-Like Gene In The Lone Star Tick Amblyomma Americanum, S. Michelle Todd, Daniel E. Sonenshine, Wayne L. Hynes
Tissue And Life Stage Distribution Of A Defensin-Like Gene In The Lone Star Tick Amblyomma Americanum, S. Michelle Todd, Daniel E. Sonenshine, Wayne L. Hynes
Biological Sciences Faculty Publications
The transcript sequence of the Amblyomma americanum Linnaeus (Acari: Ixodidae) defensin, termed amercin (amn), was ascertained and a 219-bp amn coding region identified. The gene encodes a 72-amino acid prepropeptide with a putative 37-amino acid mature peptide. This gene shows little similarity to either of the defensins from Amblyomma hebraeum Koch, the only other Amblyomma species for which a defensin has been described. Sequence comparisons with other tick defensins reveal amn to be shorter (6 bp or 2 amino acids) than the Ixodes scapularis Linnaeus (Acari: Ixodidae) and Dermacentor variabilis (Say) (Acari: Ixodidae) defensin sequences. The amercin prepropeptide …