Journal article
The C-terminal propeptide of a plant defensin confers cytoprotective and subcellular targeting functions
FT Lay, S Poon, JA McKenna, AA Connelly, BL Barbeta, BS McGinness, JL Fox, NL Daly, DJ Craik, RL Heath, MA Anderson
BMC Plant Biology | BMC | Published : 2014
Abstract
Background: Plant defensins are small (45-54 amino acids), basic, cysteine-rich proteins that have a major role in innate immunity in plants. Many defensins are potent antifungal molecules and are being evaluated for their potential to create crop plants with sustainable disease resistance. Defensins are produced as precursor molecules which are directed into the secretory pathway and are divided into two classes based on the absence (class I) or presence (class II) of an acidic C-terminal propeptide (CTPP) of about 33 amino acids. The function of this CTPP had not been defined.Results: By transgenically expressing the class II plant defensin NaD1 with and without its cognate CTPP we have de..
View full abstractGrants
Awarded by Association pour la Recherche sur le Cancer
Funding Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Australian Research Council (DP0453107, grant to MAA) and funds from Hexima Limited, Melbourne. We thank Maria Rainone for production of transgenic cotton, Fiona Foley for the peptide synthesis, Tim Brown for assistance with microscopy and image analysis, and Sonia Nikolovski, Shelley Evans and Rosemary Guarino for technical assistance.