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INSECT DEFENSINS
Family of little (30-35 residue) cysteine wealthy cationic proteins found in vertebrate phagocytes (notably the azurophil granules of neutrophils) and active against bacteria, fungi and enveloped viruses.
May constitute up to 5% of the total protein. Insect defensins have some sequencehomology with the vertebrate forms.
This entry appears with alow from the Vocabulary of Cell and Molecular Biology