Identification of the viroid-induced tomato pathogenesis-related (PR) protein P23 as the thaumatin-like tomato protein NP24 associated with osmotic stress.

P23, a 23 kDa pathogenesis-related (PR) protein, was purified from citrus exocortis viroid (CEVd)-infected tomato leaves. Partial amino acid sequencing of this protein including the N-terminal and nine additional tryptic fragments covering about 50% of its primary structure revealed extensive homologies to the members of the family of plant thaumatin-like proteins. Sequence alignment revealed that tomato P23 is the previously described NP24 protein found to be associated to osmotic stress in tomato. In view of this fact the possible role of pathogenesis-related P23 protein as a component of a general mechanism of response of the plant is discussed.