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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, February 2007, p. 939-946, Vol. 73, No. 3
0099-2240/07/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.02016-06
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Expression of a Novel Small Antimicrobial Protein from the Seeds of Motherwort (Leonurus japonicus) Confers Disease Resistance in Tobacco{triangledown},{dagger}

Xingyong Yang,* Yuehua Xiao, Xiaowen Wang, and Yan Pei*

Key Laboratory of Biotechnology and Crop Quality Improvement, Ministry of Agriculture, Biotechnology Research Center, Southwest University, 400716 Chongqing, China

Received 25 August 2006/ Accepted 20 November 2006

Medicinal plants are valuable resources of natural antimicrobial materials. A novel small protein with antimicrobial activities, designated LJAMP1, was purified from the seeds of a medicinal herb, motherwort (Leonurus japonicus Houtt). LJAMP1 is a heat-stable protein with a molecular mass of 7.8 kDa and a determined isoelectric point of 8.2. In vitro assays showed that LJAMP1 inhibits the growth of an array of fungi and bacteria. The hyphal growth inhibition by LJAMP1 was more evident against hyphomycete fungi, such as Alternaria alternata, Cercospora personata, and Aspergillus niger. The N-terminal amino acid sequence of LJAMP1 was determined, and its coding gene was consequently cloned by the rapid amplification of cDNA ends. The gene LJAMP1 has no intron and encodes a polypeptide of 95 amino acids, in which the first 27 residues was deduced as a signal peptide. The mature LJAMP1 shows relatively low identity to plant napin-like storage proteins. Northern blot assays revealed that LJAMP1 is expressed preferentially in seeds. Bioassays in transgenic tobacco demonstrated that that overexpression of LJAMP1 significantly enhanced the resistance of tobacco against not only the fungal pathogen A. alternata but also the bacterial pathogen Ralstonia solanacearum, while no visible alteration in plant growth and development was observed.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Biotechnology Research Center, Southwest Agricultural University, 400716 Chongqing, China. Phone: 86-23-68251883. Fax: 86-23-68864993. E-mail for X. Yang: yangxy94{at}swu.edu.cn. E-mail for Y. Pei: peiyan3{at}swu.edu.cn.

{dagger} Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://aem.asm.org/.

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 8 December 2006.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, February 2007, p. 939-946, Vol. 73, No. 3
0099-2240/07/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.02016-06
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.





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