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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, October 2005, p. 6360-6367, Vol. 71, No. 10
0099-2240/05/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.71.10.6360-6367.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Production of an Engineered Killer Peptide in Nicotiana benthamiana by Using a Potato virus X Expression System

Marcello Donini,1 Chiara Lico,1 Selene Baschieri,1 Stefania Conti,2 Walter Magliani,2 Luciano Polonelli,2 and Eugenio Benvenuto1*

ENEA, UTS Biotecnologie, Sezione Genetica e Genomica Vegetale, C.R. Casaccia, P.O. Box 2400, I-00100 Rome, Italy,1 Universita' di Parma, Sezione di Microbiologia-Dipartimento di Patologia e Medicina di Laboratorio, Parma, Italy2

Received 2 March 2005/ Accepted 2 June 2005

The decapeptide killer peptide (KP) derived from the sequence of a single-chain, anti-idiotypic antibody acting as a functional internal image of a microbicidal, broad-spectrum yeast killer toxin (KT) was shown to exert a strong microbicidal activity against human pathogens. With the aim to exploit this peptide to confer resistance to plant pathogens, we assayed its antimicrobial activity against a broad spectrum of phytopathogenic bacteria and fungi. Synthetic KP exhibited antimicrobial activity in vitro towards Pseudomonas syringae, Erwinia carotovora, Botrytis cinerea, and Fusarium oxysporum. KP was also expressed in plants by using a Potato virus X (PVX)-derived vector as a fusion to the viral coat protein, yielding chimeric virus particles (CVPs) displaying the heterologous peptide. Purified CVPs showed enhanced antimicrobial activity against the above-mentioned plant pathogens and human pathogens such as Staphylococcus aureus and Candida albicans. Moreover, in vivo assays designed to challenge KP-expressing plants (as CVPs) with Pseudomonas syringae pv. tabaci showed enhanced resistance to bacterial attack. The results indicate that the PVX-based display system is a high-yield, rapid, and efficient method to produce and evaluate antimicrobial peptides in plants, representing a milestone for the large-scale production of high-added-value peptides through molecular farming. Moreover, KP is a promising molecule to be stably engineered in plants to confer broad-spectrum resistance to phytopathogens.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: ENEA, UTS Biotecnologie, Sezione Genetica e Genomica Vegetale, C.R. Casaccia, P.O. Box 2400, I-00100 Rome, Italy. Phone: (39) 06 3048-6558 Fax: (39) 06 3048-4171. E-mail: benvenutoe{at}casaccia.enea.it.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, October 2005, p. 6360-6367, Vol. 71, No. 10
0099-2240/05/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.71.10.6360-6367.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Yang, X., Xiao, Y., Wang, X., Pei, Y. (2007). Expression of a Novel Small Antimicrobial Protein from the Seeds of Motherwort (Leonurus japonicus) Confers Disease Resistance in Tobacco. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 73: 939-946 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Lico, C., Capuano, F., Renzone, G., Donini, M., Marusic, C., Scaloni, A., Benvenuto, E., Baschieri, S. (2006). Peptide display on Potato virus X: molecular features of the coat protein-fused peptide affecting cell-to-cell and phloem movement of chimeric virus particles.. J. Gen. Virol. 87: 3103-3112 [Abstract] [Full Text]  


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