Pre-pro-defensins are cleaved to remove the signal peptide

Pre-pro-defensins are cleaved in the golgi by undefined proteases which remove the signal peptide (Yang et al. 2004, Pazgier et al. 2006). Subsequently, alpha-defensins are cleaved again to produce the biologically active mature peptide. Beta defensins have much shorter propieces and may be active once the signal peptide is removed. Further N-terminal processing of the mature defensin may yield multiple forms of the same peptide (Pazgier et al. 2006).

前体防御素在高尔基体中被未定义的蛋白酶切割，从而去除信号肽（杨等，2004年，帕兹吉尔等，2006年）。随后，α防御素再次被切割，以产生具有生物活性的成熟肽。β防御素的前体部分较短，且在信号肽被去除后可能即可发挥活性。此外，成熟防御素的N端进一步加工可能产生同一肽的多种形式（帕兹吉尔等，2006年）。