One hump or two for antimicrobials

Scientists have studied the urinary proteome of the dromedary, which is more resistant to infection than its double-humped relation, in the hunt for proteins with antibacterial properties. Lead author David Stead and colleagues from the University of Aberdeen, UK, and King Saud University, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, recognised that Arabian dromedaries probably have a more potent immune system. For instance, they tend not to succumb to foot and mouth disease, whereas Bactrian camels, with two humps, do. So, they looked for clues to this extra resistance in the urinary proteome and reported their findings in Proteomics.

Although there is no complete camel genome sequence, they identified 147 proteins with the aid of three other primary sequence databases: Swiss-Prot, alpaca and the camel expressed sequence tags (EST). Some of the more abundant proteins were similar to those associated with the immune response or having possible antimicrobial activity. Proteins involved with the responses to wounding, infection and stress were also abundant. "If their biological functions are conserved between species, many of the camel urinary proteins could be involved in various stress and immune responses, and some may have antimicrobial activities, Stead concluded. "Looking at the range of identified proteins, it is possible that camels, like humans, maintain a sterile urinary tract through various mechanisms."