diversity Article Molecular Diversity and Evolution of Antimicrobial Peptides in Musca domestica Sudong Qi 1,2, Bin Gao 1 and Shunyi Zhu 1,* 1 Group of Peptide Biology and Evolution, State Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Pest Insects and Rodents, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1 Beichen West Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100101, China;
[email protected] (S.Q.);
[email protected] (B.G.) 2 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +86-010-64807112 Abstract: As a worldwide sanitary insect pest, the housefly Musca domestica can carry and transmit more than 100 human pathogens without suffering any illness itself, indicative of the high effi- ciency of its innate immune system. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are the effectors of the innate immune system of multicellular organisms and establish the first line of defense to protect hosts from microbial infection. To explore the molecular diversity of the M. domestica AMPs and related evolutionary basis, we conducted a systematic survey of its full AMP components based on a combi- nation of computational approaches. These components include the cysteine-containing peptides (MdDefensins, MdEppins, MdMuslins, MdSVWCs and MdCrustins), the linear α-helical peptides (MdCecropins) and the specific amino acid-rich peptides (MdDomesticins, MdDiptericins, MdEdins and MdAttacins). On this basis, we identified multiple genetic mechanisms that could have shaped the molecular and structural diversity of the M. domestica AMPs, including: (1) Gene duplication; (2) Exon duplication via shuffling; (3) Protein terminal variations; (4) Evolution of disulfide bridges via compensation. Our results not only enlarge the insect AMP family members, but also offer a basic platform for further studying the roles of such molecular diversity in contributing to the high Citation: Qi, S.; Gao, B.; Zhu, S.