In Silico Characterization of a Transcript Code Based Screening of Antimicrobial Peptide from Trichogramma chilonis

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) from insects possess potent antimicrobial properties against various microbial related diseases. Trichogramma chilonis is a type of egg endoparasitoid wasp, well known as a biological control agent for pests that express various proteins to sustain and grown in host egg. In the present study, the bioinformatics analysis was attempted to identify T. chilonis transcript through sequence and phylogenetic analysis that clustered the transcript to Alo2 protein. Simultaneously the parasitoid egg homogenate was screened and subjected to antimicrobial property against pathogenic bacteria and fungal strains. Further, the similarity linkage clustering was identified the knottin motif at both sequence as well as structure level for Alo2. In silico physicochemical characteristics analysis of knottin motif has revealed approximate molecular weight of 6515.76 Da, theoretical Isoelectric point (pI): 7.55 and an aliphatic index: 63.06, instability index: 32.71, and grand average of hydropathicity (GRAVY): 0.547. Based on in silico results, Alo2 protein/knottin motif, was confirmed, which present in T. chilonis and the antimicrobial screening of T. chilonis protein homogenate exhibited significance growth inhibitory activity against gram positive, gram negative bacterial and fungal pathogens. The study results conclude that Alo2 protein resemble as an AMP that may express in the parasitoid egg as host defense protein and may involved to combat invading microbial pathogens and could regulate host defense mechanism during its development in host egg.