Plant pathogenic fungi produce a lot of proteins without catalytic activity, which are involved in various aspects of parasitism and in the development of disease, such as the dissemination of fungi by vectors, the attachment of the fungus to the surface of plant organs, the expression of symptoms, and the elicitation of defense responses. Currently, seven non-catalytic fungal protein families have been identified, including the cerato-platanin family (PF07249), the class I hydrophobins (PF01185), the class II hydrophobins (PF06766), the elicitins (PF00964), the PcF family (PF09461), and the NIP-1 protein family (PF08995); the CFEM family (PF05730) contains a cysteine-rich domain present into some other fungal proteins for which a role in pathogenesis has been proposed. Since different families may contain proteins with similar functions in the plant pathogenesis, and a single family contains proteins with different functions, we aimed to investigate why this happens. For this purpose we developed a study model represented by two proteins belonging to the cerato-platanin family: cerato-platanin (CP), the founder protein of the family produced by Ceratocystis platani, and cerato-populin(Pop1) produced by C. populicola. Both CP and Pop1 have been purified, cloned in Pichia pastoris and characterized biochemically and functionally. They are well-structured alpha/beta proteins (but with different percentages of the alpha-helix), and have only the 70.1 of the amino acids identical or highly conserved. Moreover, they behave as PAMPs, since it stimulated plants to activate defense responses able to reduce consistently the fungal growth. Their capability to elicit differently defense events is under study.
The cerato-platanins: non-catalytic proteins with functions in the relational life of fungi
BERNARDI, RODOLFO;
2009-01-01
Abstract
Plant pathogenic fungi produce a lot of proteins without catalytic activity, which are involved in various aspects of parasitism and in the development of disease, such as the dissemination of fungi by vectors, the attachment of the fungus to the surface of plant organs, the expression of symptoms, and the elicitation of defense responses. Currently, seven non-catalytic fungal protein families have been identified, including the cerato-platanin family (PF07249), the class I hydrophobins (PF01185), the class II hydrophobins (PF06766), the elicitins (PF00964), the PcF family (PF09461), and the NIP-1 protein family (PF08995); the CFEM family (PF05730) contains a cysteine-rich domain present into some other fungal proteins for which a role in pathogenesis has been proposed. Since different families may contain proteins with similar functions in the plant pathogenesis, and a single family contains proteins with different functions, we aimed to investigate why this happens. For this purpose we developed a study model represented by two proteins belonging to the cerato-platanin family: cerato-platanin (CP), the founder protein of the family produced by Ceratocystis platani, and cerato-populin(Pop1) produced by C. populicola. Both CP and Pop1 have been purified, cloned in Pichia pastoris and characterized biochemically and functionally. They are well-structured alpha/beta proteins (but with different percentages of the alpha-helix), and have only the 70.1 of the amino acids identical or highly conserved. Moreover, they behave as PAMPs, since it stimulated plants to activate defense responses able to reduce consistently the fungal growth. Their capability to elicit differently defense events is under study.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
