Boros Éva

Bratschun-Khan Doris

Galgóczy László

Marx Florentine

Nagy István

Sonderegger Christoph

Tóth Liliána

English

University of Szeged

APPLICABILITY OF PEIMCILLIUM CHRYSOGENUM ANTIFUNGAL PROTEIN AND ITS RATIONAL DESIGNED VARIANT IN PLANTPROTECTIONLiliána Tóth1, Christoph Sonderegger2, Éva Boros3, István Nagy3, Doris Bratschln-Kiian2, Florentine Marx2, László Galgóczy14‘Institute of Plant Biology, Biological Research Centre, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Temesvári krt. 62, H-6726, Szeged, Hungary 2Division of Molecular Biology, Biocenter, Medical University of Innsbruck, Innrain 80-82, A-6020, Innsbruck, Austria ’Institute of Biochemistry, Biological Research Centre, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Temesvári krt. 62, H-6726, Szeged, Hungary 4Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Science and Informatics, University of Szeged, Közép fasor 52, H-6726, Szeged, Hungary galgoczi.laszlo@brc.mta.huThe enormous crop losses worldwide caused by pesticide-resistant pathogenic fungi in pre- and postharvest conditions represent a serious challenge for the agriculture in every year. Application of alternative biopesticides provides a promising basis to overcome this problem. Our previous studies demonstrated that the extracellular, cationic and cysteine-rich antifungal protein PAF from Penicillium chrysogenum effectively inhibits the growth of several other filamentous ascomycetes. In the present study we report for the first time the improved efficacy of the PAF variant PAFyopt against plant pathogenic fungi. In PAFyopt specific amino acids in the evolutionary conserved antimicrobial gamma (y)-core motif were substituted to elevate the positive net charge and the hydrophilicity of PAF (Sonderegger et al., Front. Microbiol. 2018, 9, 1655). PAFyop' effectively inhibited the growth of the plant-pathogens Cladosporium and Fusarium spp. in vitro, but proved to be ineffective against aspergilli. In contrast, Aspergillus spp. showed high susceptibility to the wild-type PAF, while cladosporia and fusaria were less susceptible in comparison with PAFyopt. Double minimal inhibitory concentration (2><MIC) of PAF and PAFyopl did not affect the viability of Medicago truncatula germlings in plant toxicity assay. Furthermore, the root length and the side root number of the plants growing in the presence of PAF and PAFyopt were not significantly different from the untreated control. In vitro plant protection experiments demonstrated that the treatment of M. truncatula germlings with 2*MIC PAFyopt decreased the symptoms of Fusarium oxysporum infection. In vitro cytotoxicity tests excluded any toxic effects of PAF and PAFyopt on human keratinocytes, intestinal epithelial cells and leukocytes when applied at2*MICs; furthermore, haemolyticactivity was not observed at this concentration. Our proof-of-principle experiments promise the successful application of de novo rationally designed antifungal proteins in plant protection and the development of novel antifungal strategies for the use in agriculture.LG is financed from the Postdoctoral Excellence Programme (PD 120808) and the bilateral Austrian-Hungarian Joint Research Project (ANN 122833) of the Hungarian National Research, Development and Innovation Office (NKFI Office). This work was supported from the Austrian Science Fund (P25894-B20, 11644-B20 and I3132-B21) to FM. Research of LG has been supported by the János Bolyai Research Scholarship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Present work of LG was supported by the UNKP-18-4 New National Excellence Program of the Ministry of Human Capacities.

Applicability of Penicillium chrysogenum antifungal protein and its rational designed variant in plant protection : [abstract]

https://acta.bibl.u-szeged.hu/84380/1/wellmann_abstracts_2019_073-074.pdf

Applicability of Penicillium chrysogenum antifungal protein and its rational designed variant in plant protection : [abstract]

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University of Szeged