Desenvolvimento de peptídeos antimicrobianos a partir do transcriptoma foliar de Lippia alba e Lippia rotundifolia

Abstract

Misuse of antibiotics has become, in recent years, worldwide problem according to the World Health Organization, since the number of resistant microorganisms for most commonly used drugs has increased. In contrast to this public health problem, new antibiotics with different courses of action have been researched. Many of these antibiotics have been discovered from the first line of plant and animal defense. This is a group of molecules called Antimicrobial Peptides (AMPs). In the present work three antimicrobial peptides showing bactericidal activity were developed from the transcriptome of Lippia rotundifolia and L. alba. The normalized RNA was sequenced in 454 GS platform and the RNA library was used for in silico searching and modeling peptides showing similar structure and action to AMP. The peptides were synthesized and their activity was validated by antimicrobial tests. The L.alb1 and L.rot3 peptides showed promising results and were modelled again by the use of rational design methodology to inbreed structure and activity. The L.rot3.5 and L.rot3.6 peptides showed the most promising results against the tested pathogens. The results reported here demonstrated that the discovery of new AMPs from transcriptome against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria is an important tool for this purpose.