Department of Microbiology III, Faculty of Biology, Complutense University of Madrid Jose Antonio Novais 12, 28040 Madrid, Spain.
Department of Biology, Northeastern University, 134 Mugar Life Sciences, 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Int J Food Microbiol. 2018 Oct 20;283:45-51. doi: 10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2018.06.017. Epub 2018 Jun 25.
Filamentous fungi are an invaluable source for biocontrol strategies and for production and development of different antifungal polypeptides. Within this context, cysteine-rich antifungal AFP-like peptides stand out among many different antimicrobial compounds given their production easiness, stability, versatility, and efficacy. AFP from Aspergillus giganteus represents the hallmark of this still increasing family of antifungal polypeptides. Close in silico analyses of the Fusarium graminearum genome revealed the presence of an AFP-like peptide, here designated as FgAFP. This new peptide was cloned, produced in the yeast Pichia pastoris, and characterized. The results obtained showed its strong and specific antifungal activity against several well-recognized maize pathogens, but inefficacy against F. oxysporum, which has not been described as a natural biological competitor of other fungal pathogens assayed. All results together suggest that this small peptide is an important factor for the fungal interplays involved in maize infection and reveals unforeseen potential biotechnological applications for FgAFP in maize production and storage.
丝状真菌是生物防治策略以及不同抗真菌多肽的生产和开发的宝贵资源。在这种情况下，富含半胱氨酸的抗真菌 AFP 样肽在许多不同的抗菌化合物中脱颖而出，因为它们易于生产、稳定、多功能和有效。巨大曲霉 AFP 代表了这个不断增加的抗真菌多肽家族的标志。对禾谷镰刀菌基因组的密切计算机分析揭示了一种 AFP 样肽的存在，这里将其命名为 FgAFP。该新肽被克隆，在巴斯德毕赤酵母中生产并进行了表征。获得的结果表明，它对几种公认的玉米病原体具有强烈而特异的抗真菌活性，但对尖孢镰刀菌无效，尖孢镰刀菌尚未被描述为其他真菌病原体的天然生物竞争者。所有结果都表明，这种小肽是玉米感染中真菌相互作用的重要因素，并揭示了 FgAFP 在玉米生产和储存中的潜在生物技术应用。
