title: Pokeweed antiviral protein: its cytotoxicity mechanism and applications in plant disease resistance.
abstract: Pokeweed antiviral protein (PAP) is a 29 kDa type I ribosome inactivating protein (RIP) found in pokeweed plants. Pokeweed produces different forms of PAP. This review focuses on the spring form of PAP isolated from Phytolacca americana leaves. PAP exerts its cytotoxicity by removing a specific adenine from the α-sarcin/ricin loop of the large ribosomal RNA. Besides depurination of the rRNA, PAP has additional activities that contribute to its cytotoxicity. The mechanism of PAP cytotoxicity is summarized based on evidence from the analysis of transgenic plants and the yeast model system. PAP was initially found to be anti-viral when it was co-inoculated with plant viruses onto plants. Transgenic plants expressing PAP and non-toxic PAP mutants have displayed broad-spectrum resistance to both viral and fungal infection. The mechanism of PAP-induced disease resistance in transgenic plants is summarized.
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Biology and Pathology, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, 59 Dudley Road, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA. di@aesop.rutgers.edu.
authors.forename: Rong
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Di
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Biology and Pathology, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, 59 Dudley Road, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA. tumer@aesop.rutgers.edu.
authors.forename: Nilgun E
authors.initials: NE
authors.lastname: Tumer
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D060467:Disease Resistance; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D029604:Phytolacca americana / Q000235:genetics / Q000382:microbiology / Q000821:virology; D010935:Plant Diseases / Q000235:genetics* / Q000382:microbiology / Q000821:virology; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000737:chemistry; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified / Q000235:genetics; D054789:Ribosome Inactivating Proteins, Type 1 / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D016415:Sequence Alignment
chemical_list: D054789:Ribosome Inactivating Proteins, Type 1; C024275:pokeweed antiviral protein