LYTIC PEPTIDES FROM THE SKIN SECRETIONS OF XENOPUS-LAEVIS - A PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE

Peptides with lytic and antimicrobial activities comprise a large portion of the peptide content of the skin secretions in Xenopus laevis, or African clawed toad. When these positively charged peptides are presented as Edmundson wheel projections, they all have in common a predicted amphipathic alpha-helical structure. It is likely that the ability to form such an alpha-helical conforamtion while spanning cellular membranes is the molecular basis for their lytic activity, although the precise organization of these peptides in membranes is not known. In this paper, a short personal perspective of the events that led up to the discovery of these peptides and their associated activity is discussed.