Antimicrobial effect of the 60S ribosomal protein L29 (cgRPL29), purified from the gill of pacific oyster, Crassostrea gigas

The full-length cgRPL29 cDNA of the Pacific oyster comprised 325-bp, including a 5'-untranslated region (UTR) of 100-bp, a 3′-UTR of 57-bp, and an open reading frame of 168-bp encoding 55 amino acids, with a Met residue at the N-terminus. The cgRPL29 mRNA tissue distribution suggested that it is constitutively expressed in a non-tissue-specific manner. Secondary structural prediction and homology modeling indicated cgRPL29 have an unordered structure containing two partial α-helical regions. This is to our knowledge the first report of the antimicrobial effect of the 60S ribosomal protein L29 from marine invertebrates.