A Novel Isoform of the Hepatic Antimicrobial Peptide, Hepcidin (Hepc-CB1), from a Deep-Sea Fish, the Spinyjaw Greeneye Chlorophthalmus bicornis (Norman, 1939): Molecular Characterisation and Phylogeny

Hepcidin is cysteine-rich short peptide of innate immune system of fishes, equipped to perform prevention and proliferation of invading pathogens like bacteria and viruses by limiting iron availability and activating intracellular cascades. Hepcidins are diverse in teleost fishes, due to the varied aquatic environments including exposure to pathogens, oxygenation and iron concentration. In the present study, we report a 87-amino acid (aa) preprohepcidin (Hepc-CB1) with a signal peptide of 24 aa, a prodomain of 39 aa and a bioactive mature peptide of 24 aa from the gill mRNA transcripts of the deep-sea fish spinyjaw greeneye, Chlorophthalmus bicornis. Molecular characterisation and phylogenetic analysis categorised the peptide to HAMP2-like group with a mature peptide of 2.53 kDa; a net positive charge (?3) and capacity to form b-hairpin-like structure configured by 8 conserved cysteines. The present work provides new insight into the mass gene duplication events and adaptive evolution of hepcidin isoforms with respect to environmental influences and positive Darwinian selection. This work reports a novel hepcidin isoform under the group HAMP2 from a nonacanthopterygian deep-sea fish, C. bicornis

An efficient scheme for the evaluation of coding performance of high speed links incorporating joint error behaviour based on Monte Carlo Method

While channel coding is a standard method of improving a system’s energy efficiency in digital communications, its practice does not extend to high-speed links. Increasing demands in network speeds are placing a large burden on the energy efficiency of high-speed links and render the benefit of channel coding for these systems a timely subject. The low error rates of interest and the presence of residual intersymbol interference (ISI) caused by hardware constraints impede the analysis and simulation of coded high-speed links. Focusing on the residual ISI and combined noise as the dominant error mechanisms, this paper analyses error correlation through concepts of error region, channel signature, and correlation distance. This framework provides a deeper insight into joint error behaviours in high-speed links, extends the range of statistical simulation for coded high-speed links, and provides a case against the use of biased Monte Carlo methods in this setting