A technique for detecting antifungal activity of proteins separated by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis.

A technique was developed for the detection of antifungal activity of proteins after discontinuous polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis under native conditions. The antifungal activity is detected as growth inhibition zones in a homogeneous fungal lawn, grown in an agar layer spread on top of the polyacrylamide gel. The position of proteins with antifungal activity can be determined on a diffusion blot prepared from the same gel. The technique is illustrated for three antifungal plant proteins, i.e. alpha-purothionin, Urtica dioica agglutinin, and tobacco chitinase.