Laboratory of Molecular-Genetic Bases of Plant Immunity, Vavilov Institute of General Genetics RAS, 119333 Moscow, Russia.
Biomolecules. 2020 Jul 10;10(7):1029. doi: 10.3390/biom10071029.
The grass family (Poaceae) is one of the largest families of flowering plants, growing in all climatic zones of all continents, which includes species of exceptional economic importance. The high adaptability of grasses to adverse environmental factors implies the existence of efficient resistance mechanisms that involve the production of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs). Of plant AMPs, defensins represent one of the largest and best-studied families. Although wheat and barley seed γ-thionins were the first defensins isolated from plants, the functional characterization of grass defensins is still in its infancy. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge of the characterized defensins from cultivated and selected wild-growing grasses. For each species, isolation of defensins or production by heterologous expression, peptide structure, biological activity, and structure-function relationship are described, along with the gene expression data. We also provide our results on in silico mining of defensin-like sequences in the genomes of all described grass species and discuss their potential functions. The data presented will form the basis for elucidation of the mode of action of grass defensins and high adaptability of grasses to environmental stress and will provide novel potent molecules for practical use in medicine and agriculture.
禾本科（Poaceae）是开花植物最大的科之一，生长在所有大陆的所有气候带，包括具有特殊经济重要性的物种。草类对不利环境因素的高度适应性意味着存在有效的抗性机制，其中涉及抗菌肽（AMPs）的产生。在植物 AMPs 中，防御素代表最大和研究最多的家族之一。尽管小麦和大麦种子γ-硫素是最早从植物中分离出的防御素，但草类防御素的功能表征仍处于起步阶段。在这篇综述中，我们总结了已鉴定的栽培和选定野生生长的禾本科植物防御素的最新知识。对于每种物种，我们描述了防御素的分离或通过异源表达产生、肽结构、生物活性和结构-功能关系，以及基因表达数据。我们还提供了我们在所有描述的禾本科物种基因组中进行防御素样序列的计算机挖掘的结果，并讨论了它们的潜在功能。所提供的数据将为阐明草类防御素的作用模式以及草类对环境胁迫的高度适应性奠定基础，并为医学和农业的实际应用提供新的有效分子。
