Evolutionary trend of bovine β-defensin proteins toward functionality prediction: A domain-based bioinformatics study

Defensins are small cationic cysteine-rich and amphipathic peptides that form of three-dimensional β-strand structure connected by disulfide bonds. Defensins form key elements of the innate immune system of multicellular organisms. They not only possess broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity but also have diverse roles, including cell signaling, ion channel agitation, toxic functions, and enzyme inhibitor activities in various animals. Although the role of β-defensins in immune responses against infectious agents and reproduction could be significant, inadequate genomic information is available to explain the whole β-defensin repertoire in cattle. No domain or motif-based functional analyses have been previously reported. In addition, how do defensins possess this magnitude of functions in the immune system is still not clear. Our present study, therefore, investigated the sequence divergence and evolutionary relations of bovine defensin proteins with those of humans. Our domain-based evolutionary analysis revealed four major clusters with significant domain variation while reserving a main antimicrobial activity. Our study revealed the β-defensin domain as the ancestor domain, and it is preserved in the first group of defensin protein with no α-helix in its structure. Due to natural selection, some domains have evolved independently within clusters II and III, while some proteins have lost their domain characteristics. Cluster IV contains the most recently evolved domains. Some proteins of all but cluster I might have adopted the functional characteristics of α-defensins which is largely absent in cattle. The proteins show different patterns of disulfide bridges and multiple signature patterns which might render them specialized functions in different tissue to combat against various pathogens.