“…To date, several AMPs have been identified in mollusks such as the gastropod Dolabella auricularia (Iijima et al, 2003); marine bivalves Mytilus edulis (Charlet et al, 1996), M. galloprovincialis (Hubert et al, 1996;Dupuy et al, 2004), Crassostrea virginica (Seo et al, 2005) and C. gigas (Gonzalez et al, 2007;Gueguen et al, 2006). By using biochemical and molecular cloning techniques, the following 4 groups of cationic cysteine-rich AMPs have been isolated from the hemocytes of unchallenged mussels M. galloprovincialis and M. edulis: (i) defensin-like peptides MGD-1 and MGD-2 (Mitta et al, 2000;Romestand et al, 2003;Seo et al, 2005;Gueguen et al, 2006); (ii) myticins (Mitta et al, 2000); (iii) mytilins with 8 cysteine residues but different specific cysteine arrays and amino acid sequences (Mitta et al, 2000); and (iv) mytimycin (Charlet et al, 1996). Except for the AMP described above, a novel antimicrobial peptides named Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology, Part B 157 (2010) 119-126 theromacin was isolated and characterized from annelid Theromyzon tessulatum (Tasiemski et al, 2004) and Hirudo medicinalis (Tasiemski, 2008).…”