Discovery of a toxin for skin immune defense in African lungfish

Abstract African lungfish estivate every dry season to survive unfavorable environmental conditions. The estivation process is associated with a drastic remodeling of the skin characterized by severe inflammation, granulocyte infiltration, epithelial damage and stem cell depletion which ultimately lead formation cocoon potent antimicrobial functions. We recently identified novel toxin molecule that can be detected in mucus using proteomics. There are two genes genome encoding for this toxin, one six exons segmented duplicated gene five exons. also found Australian as single exon but appears lost South American lungfish. Our studies show dermal cells express at steady state. Upon estivation, mRNA levels upregulated up 200-fold immunofluorescence microscopy shows it co-localizes extracellular trap markers. 3D structure modeling predicts pore-forming delta-endotoxin potential insecticide Current experiments trying elucidate biological roles new during freshwater estivating stages.