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Histidine-Rich Defensins from the Solanaceae and Brasicaceae Are Antifungal and Metal Binding Proteins

Plant defensins are best known for their antifungal activity and contribution to the plant immune system. The defining feature of plant defensins is their three-dimensional structure known as the cysteine stabilized alpha-beta motif. This protein fold is remarkably tolerant to sequence variation wit...

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Autores principales: Bleackley, Mark R., Vasa, Shaily, Harvey, Peta J., Shafee, Thomas M. A., Kerenga, Bomai K., Soares da Costa, Tatiana P., Craik, David J., Lowe, Rohan G. T., Anderson, Marilyn A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7557933/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32847065
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jof6030145
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author Bleackley, Mark R.
Vasa, Shaily
Harvey, Peta J.
Shafee, Thomas M. A.
Kerenga, Bomai K.
Soares da Costa, Tatiana P.
Craik, David J.
Lowe, Rohan G. T.
Anderson, Marilyn A.
author_facet Bleackley, Mark R.
Vasa, Shaily
Harvey, Peta J.
Shafee, Thomas M. A.
Kerenga, Bomai K.
Soares da Costa, Tatiana P.
Craik, David J.
Lowe, Rohan G. T.
Anderson, Marilyn A.
author_sort Bleackley, Mark R.
collection PubMed
description Plant defensins are best known for their antifungal activity and contribution to the plant immune system. The defining feature of plant defensins is their three-dimensional structure known as the cysteine stabilized alpha-beta motif. This protein fold is remarkably tolerant to sequence variation with only the eight cysteines that contribute to the stabilizing disulfide bonds absolutely conserved across the family. Mature defensins are typically 46–50 amino acids in length and are enriched in lysine and/or arginine residues. Examination of a database of approximately 1200 defensin sequences revealed a subset of defensin sequences that were extended in length and were enriched in histidine residues leading to their classification as histidine-rich defensins (HRDs). Using these initial HRD sequences as a query, a search of the available sequence databases identified over 750 HRDs in solanaceous plants and 20 in brassicas. Histidine residues are known to contribute to metal binding functions in proteins leading to the hypothesis that HRDs would have metal binding properties. A selection of the HRD sequences were recombinantly expressed and purified and their antifungal and metal binding activity was characterized. Of the four HRDs that were successfully expressed all displayed some level of metal binding and two of four had antifungal activity. Structural characterization of the other HRDs identified a novel pattern of disulfide linkages in one of the HRDs that is predicted to also occur in HRDs with similar cysteine spacing. Metal binding by HRDs represents a specialization of the plant defensin fold outside of antifungal activity.
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spelling pubmed-75579332020-10-22 Histidine-Rich Defensins from the Solanaceae and Brasicaceae Are Antifungal and Metal Binding Proteins Bleackley, Mark R. Vasa, Shaily Harvey, Peta J. Shafee, Thomas M. A. Kerenga, Bomai K. Soares da Costa, Tatiana P. Craik, David J. Lowe, Rohan G. T. Anderson, Marilyn A. J Fungi (Basel) Article Plant defensins are best known for their antifungal activity and contribution to the plant immune system. The defining feature of plant defensins is their three-dimensional structure known as the cysteine stabilized alpha-beta motif. This protein fold is remarkably tolerant to sequence variation with only the eight cysteines that contribute to the stabilizing disulfide bonds absolutely conserved across the family. Mature defensins are typically 46–50 amino acids in length and are enriched in lysine and/or arginine residues. Examination of a database of approximately 1200 defensin sequences revealed a subset of defensin sequences that were extended in length and were enriched in histidine residues leading to their classification as histidine-rich defensins (HRDs). Using these initial HRD sequences as a query, a search of the available sequence databases identified over 750 HRDs in solanaceous plants and 20 in brassicas. Histidine residues are known to contribute to metal binding functions in proteins leading to the hypothesis that HRDs would have metal binding properties. A selection of the HRD sequences were recombinantly expressed and purified and their antifungal and metal binding activity was characterized. Of the four HRDs that were successfully expressed all displayed some level of metal binding and two of four had antifungal activity. Structural characterization of the other HRDs identified a novel pattern of disulfide linkages in one of the HRDs that is predicted to also occur in HRDs with similar cysteine spacing. Metal binding by HRDs represents a specialization of the plant defensin fold outside of antifungal activity. MDPI 2020-08-24 /pmc/articles/PMC7557933/ /pubmed/32847065 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jof6030145 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Bleackley, Mark R.
Vasa, Shaily
Harvey, Peta J.
Shafee, Thomas M. A.
Kerenga, Bomai K.
Soares da Costa, Tatiana P.
Craik, David J.
Lowe, Rohan G. T.
Anderson, Marilyn A.
Histidine-Rich Defensins from the Solanaceae and Brasicaceae Are Antifungal and Metal Binding Proteins
title Histidine-Rich Defensins from the Solanaceae and Brasicaceae Are Antifungal and Metal Binding Proteins
title_full Histidine-Rich Defensins from the Solanaceae and Brasicaceae Are Antifungal and Metal Binding Proteins
title_fullStr Histidine-Rich Defensins from the Solanaceae and Brasicaceae Are Antifungal and Metal Binding Proteins
title_full_unstemmed Histidine-Rich Defensins from the Solanaceae and Brasicaceae Are Antifungal and Metal Binding Proteins
title_short Histidine-Rich Defensins from the Solanaceae and Brasicaceae Are Antifungal and Metal Binding Proteins
title_sort histidine-rich defensins from the solanaceae and brasicaceae are antifungal and metal binding proteins
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7557933/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32847065
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jof6030145
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