The Plant Peptidome: An Expanding Repertoire of Structural Features and Biological Functions.
Peptides fulfill a plethora of functions in plant growth, development, and stress responses. They act as key components of cell-to-cell communication, interfere with signaling and response pathways, or display antimicrobial activity. Strikingly, both the diversity and amount of plant peptides have been largely underestimated. Most characterized plant peptides to date acting as small signaling peptides or antimicrobial peptides are derived from nonfunctional precursor proteins. However, evidence is emerging on peptides derived from a functional protein, directly translated from small open reading frames (without the involvement of a precursor) or even encoded by primary transcripts of microRNAs. These novel types of peptides further add to the complexity of the plant peptidome, even though their number is still limited and functional characterization as well as translational evidence are often controversial. Here, we provide a comprehensive overview of the reported types of plant peptides, including their described functional and structural properties. We propose a novel, unifying peptide classification system to emphasize the enormous diversity in peptide synthesis and consequent complexity of the still expanding knowledge on the plant peptidome.
Centre of Microbial and Plant Genetics, Department of Microbial and Molecular Systems, University of Leuven (KU Leuven), B-3000 Leuven, Belgium Department of Plant Systems Biology, VIB, B-9052 Ghent, Belgium.
Patrizia
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8480-3094
P
Tavormina
Centre of Microbial and Plant Genetics, Department of Microbial and Molecular Systems, University of Leuven (KU Leuven), B-3000 Leuven, Belgium Department of Plant Systems Biology, VIB, B-9052 Ghent, Belgium.
Barbara
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9349-5086
B
De Coninck
Department of Plant Systems Biology, VIB, B-9052 Ghent, Belgium Department of Plant Biotechnology and Genetics, Ghent University, B-9052 Ghent, Belgium.
Natalia
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9587-9630
N
Nikonorova
Department of Plant Systems Biology, VIB, B-9052 Ghent, Belgium Department of Plant Biotechnology and Genetics, Ghent University, B-9052 Ghent, Belgium Division of Plant and Crop Sciences, School of Biosciences, University of Nottingham, Leicestershire LE12 5RD, United Kingdom Centre for Plant Integrative Biology, School of Biosciences, University of Nottingham, Loughborough LE12 5RD, United Kingdom.
Ive
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4607-8893
I
De Smet
Centre of Microbial and Plant Genetics, Department of Microbial and Molecular Systems, University of Leuven (KU Leuven), B-3000 Leuven, Belgium Department of Plant Systems Biology, VIB, B-9052 Ghent, Belgium bruno.cammue@biw.kuleuven.be.
Bruno P A
BP
Cammue
D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics; D008957:Models, Genetic; D016366:Open Reading Frames / Q000235:genetics; D010455:Peptides / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D010944:Plants / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D011498:Protein Precursors / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D020543:Proteome / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D059467:Transcriptome / Q000235:genetics
D035683:MicroRNAs; D010455:Peptides; D010940:Plant Proteins; D011498:Protein Precursors; D020543:Proteome