Silk gland-specific proteinase inhibitor serpin16 from the Bombyx mori shows cysteine proteinase inhibitory activity

• Serpin16 was specifically expressed at high levels in the silk gland.
• Homology modeling of serpin16 revealed a very short reactive center loop.
• Serpin16 shows inhibitory activity towards cysteine proteinase.
• A docking model of serpin16 with its target proteinase was constructed.

Serpins (serine proteinase inhibitors) are widely distributed in different species and are well known for their inhibitory activities towards serine proteinases. Here, we report the functional characterization of Bombyx mori serpin16. Expression analysis showed that serpin16 was specifically expressed at high levels in the silk gland at both the transcriptional and translational levels. Moreover, homology modeling and multi-sequence alignment suggested that serpin16 had a canonical serpin fold, but it contained a unique reactive center loop, which was obviously shorter than that of typical serpins. Inhibitory activity analyses revealed that the target proteinase of serpin18 is a cysteine proteinase, rather than a serine proteinase. Furthermore, a Michaelis complex model of serpin16 with its target proteinase was constructed to explain the structural basis of how serpin16 recognizes the cysteine proteinase and its target specificity.