Department of Molecular Biology, Centre of the Region Haná for Biotechnological and Agricultural Research, Palacký University, Šlechtitelů 11, 783 71 Olomouc, Czech Republic.
Biotechnol Adv. 2015 Nov 1;33(6 Pt 2):1005-23. doi: 10.1016/j.biotechadv.2015.03.007. Epub 2015 Mar 14.
Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are vital components of the innate immune system of nearly all living organisms. They generally act in the first line of defense against various pathogenic bacteria, parasites, enveloped viruses and fungi. These low molecular mass peptides are considered prospective therapeutic agents due to their broad-spectrum rapid activity, low cytotoxicity to mammalian cells and unique mode of action which hinders emergence of pathogen resistance. In addition to medical use, AMPs can also be employed for development of innovative approaches for plant protection in agriculture. Conferred disease resistance by AMPs might help us surmount losses in yield, quality and safety of agricultural products due to plant pathogens. Heterologous expression in plant-based systems, also called plant molecular farming, offers cost-effective large-scale production which is regarded as one of the most important factors for clinical or agricultural use of AMPs. This review presents various types of AMPs as well as plant-based platforms ranging from cell suspensions to whole plants employed for peptide production. Although AMP production in plants holds great promises for medicine and agriculture, specific technical limitations regarding product yield, function and stability still remain. Additionally, establishment of particular stable expression systems employing plants or plant tissues generally requires extended time scale for platform development compared to certain other heterologous systems. Therefore, fast and promising tools for evaluation of plant-based expression strategies and assessment of function and stability of the heterologously produced AMPs are critical for molecular farming and plant protection.
抗菌肽 (AMPs) 是几乎所有生物体先天免疫系统的重要组成部分。它们通常作为第一道防线，对抗各种致病细菌、寄生虫、包膜病毒和真菌。由于这些低分子量肽具有广谱快速活性、对哺乳动物细胞的低细胞毒性以及独特的作用模式，可阻碍病原体产生耐药性，因此被认为是有前途的治疗药物。除了在医学上的应用，抗菌肽还可以用于开发农业中创新的植物保护方法。抗菌肽赋予的疾病抗性可能有助于我们克服因植物病原体而导致的农产品产量、质量和安全损失。基于植物的系统中的异源表达，也称为植物分子农业，提供了具有成本效益的大规模生产，被认为是抗菌肽临床或农业应用的最重要因素之一。本综述介绍了各种类型的抗菌肽以及用于肽生产的从细胞悬浮液到整个植物的基于植物的平台。尽管抗菌肽在植物中的生产为医学和农业带来了巨大的前景，但关于产品产量、功能和稳定性的具体技术限制仍然存在。此外，与某些其他异源系统相比，建立采用植物或植物组织的特定稳定表达系统通常需要更长的时间来开发平台。因此，对于分子农业和植物保护而言，评估植物表达策略和评估异源生产的抗菌肽的功能和稳定性的快速有前途的工具至关重要。
