The potential of plant antimicrobial peptides for crop protection against diseases

Abstract

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are the most important components of plant innate immunity to environmental stress factors and one of the most ancient tools of the defense system. Most of them are synthesized as factors of constitutive plant immunity, but there are also inducible forms belonging to “pathogenesis-related proteins” (PR-proteins from classes 12, 13 and 14). This review provides characteristics of the primary and three-dimensional structures of the main families of plant AMPs. The relationship between the types of spatial arrangement of the polypeptide chain is drawn. The functional analysis of plant AMPs is presented by data on the spectrum and quantitative level of activities against a number of economically significant fungal and bacterial phytopathogens, and related biological effects are indicated. Additionally, current information is provided on the molecular mechanisms of the antimicrobial action of plant AMPs based on defensins as the most studied structural group. In conclusion, aspects of the modes of action for plant AMPs on microorganisms are considered, on the basis of which a variant of the functional classification of these molecules is proposed. Based on these data, the prospects for their use as the basis of biopesticides for plant protection against pathogens were assessed.