Massively parallel amplicon sequencing reveals isotype-specific variability of antimicrobial peptide transcripts in Mytilus galloprovincialis.. Mytilus galloprovincialis

Effective innate responses against potential pathogens are essential in the living world and possibly contributed to the evolutionary success of invertebrates. All together, antimicrobial peptide (AMP) precursors of defensin, mytilin, myticin and mytimycin can represent 20-40% of the hemocyte trascriptome in mussels injected with viral-like and bacterial preparations, with unique profiles of myticin C variants expressed in single mussels. In the present work, we have used the 454 pyrosequencing to study thoroughly the sequence variability of 9 different AMP precursors expressed in hemocytes of mussels (M. galloprovincialis) farmed in three European regions. Using the same approach we compared the AMP transcript diversity of mussels farmed offshore or living inshore the Venice Lagoon (Italy), both injected or not with live Vibrio cells.