Two different late embryogenesis abundant proteins from Arabidopsis thaliana contain specific domains that inhibit Escherichia coli growth.
Late embryogenesis abundant (LEA) proteins constitute a set of proteins widespread in the plant kingdom that show common physicochemical properties such as high hydrophilicity and high content of small amino acid residues such as glycine, alanine, and serine. Typically, these proteins accumulate in response to water deficit conditions imposed by the environment or during plant normal development. In this work, we show that the over-expression in Escherichia coli of proteins of the LEA 2 and the LEA 4 families from Arabidopsis thaliana leads to inhibition of bacterial growth and that this effect is dependent on discrete regions of the proteins. Our data indicate that their antimicrobial effect is achieved through their interaction with intracellular targets. The relevance of the cationic nature and the predicted structural organization of particular protein domains in this detrimental effect on the bacteria growth process is discussed.
Departamento de Biología Molecular de Plantas, Instituto de Biotecnología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Av. Universidad 2001, Cuernavaca, Morelos 62210, Mexico.
Francisco
F
Campos
Fernando
F
Zamudio
Alejandra A
AA
Covarrubias
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000890:Anti-Infective Agents / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000196:embryology* / Q000502:physiology; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000502:physiology*; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development*; D006131:Growth Inhibitors / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology
D000890:Anti-Infective Agents; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; D006131:Growth Inhibitors; D010940:Plant Proteins; C066246:late embryogenesis abundant protein, plant; C070556:dehydrin proteins, plant