Defensin Beta 125 (DEFb125)

The innate immune system includes antimicrobial peptides that protect multicellular organisms from a diverse spectrum of microorganisms. beta-Defensins comprise one important family of mammalian antimicrobial peptides. The annotation of the human genome fails to reveal the expected diversity, and a recent query of the draft sequence with the blast search engine found only one new beta-defensin gene (DEFB3). Defensins are cysteine-rich cationic polypeptides that are important in the host immunologic response to invading microorganisms. DEFb125 is secreted and is a member of the beta defensin protein family. Beta defensin genes are found in several clusters throughout the genome, with this gene mapping to a cluster at 20p13.