Poster: Molecular & Cellular Plant-Microbe Interactions: Plant Defense Responses
768-P
A synergistic effect of two plant antimicrobial peptides from defensin and lipid-transfer protein families towards Phytophthora infestans
E. ROGOZHIN (1), D. Zaytsev (2) (1) Shemyakin and Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia; (2) Timiryazev Russian State Agrarian University, Russia
Late blight caused by Phytophthora infestans (Mont.) de Bary is one of the most important diseases afflicting potatoes and tomatoes worldwide. It results in economically meaningful yield losses and decreases in the quality of harvested produce. In the last two decades, researchers have focused on developing chemical and biological pesticides to treat against the diseases following plant tissue necrotization and dying off. Antimicrobial peptides are one of the primary components of a plant innate immunity to biotic stress factors involving diseases and pests. Most of these peptides can act directly against plant pathogenic microorganisms (fungi, oomycetes and bacteria) based on disruption of cell wall and plasma membrane integrity. In our study, we investigated two antimicrobial peptides (plant defensin NsD2 isolated from Nigella sativa seeds and lipid-transfer protein EcLTP purified from Echinochloa crusgalli kernels) belonging to different plant defense families. We showed that these peptides exhibited synergistic action against Phytophthora infestans on potato tuber disks assays when used in tandem. An application of plant antimicrobial peptides that demonstrates a diverse mode of action towards Phytophthora infestans would enable increases in the inhibition effect up to complete elimination of the pathogen.