Thionins

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Wheat β-purothionine

A thionin is a protein from a protein family ( thionins ) that occurs in higher plants to ward off predators.

properties

Thionins are small proteins of 45 to 48 amino acids with three to four disulfide bridges (formed from two peptidically bound cysteine units). They are divided into three groups, of which the groups α and β are homologous to one another. γ-Thionins are also known as plant defensins . Thionins are found in clusters in seeds . Thionins are cytotoxic to animal, fungal, and bacterial cells, presumably by a mechanism similar to that of pore-forming toxins . The pores lead to a breakdown of the ion gradients on the cell membrane and to a leakage of the cytosol .

The protein crambin from Crambe abyssinica and the viscotoxins from mistletoe are thionines.

The PhytAMP database carries thionins.

Applications

Thionins are being studied for treating bacterial infections and cancer .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ L. Padovan, M. Scocchi, A. Tossi: Structural aspects of plant antimicrobial peptides. In: Current protein & peptide science. Volume 11, Number 3, May 2010, pp. 210-219, PMID 20088769 .
  2. ↑ B. Stec: Plant thionin-the structural perspective. In: Cellular and molecular life sciences: CMLS. Volume 63, Number 12, June 2006, pp. 1370-1385, doi : 10.1007 / s00018-005-5574-5 , PMID 16715411 .
  3. ↑ PB Pelegrini, OL Franco: Plant gamma-thionins: novel insights on the mechanism of action of a multi-functional class of defense proteins. In: The international journal of biochemistry & cell biology. Volume 37, Number 11, November 2005, pp. 2239-2253, doi : 10.1016 / j.biocel.2005.06.011 , PMID 16084753 .
  4. ↑ DE Florack, WJ Stiekema: thionin: properties, possible biological roles and mechanisms of action. In: Plant molecular biology. Volume 26, Number 1, October 1994, pp. 25-37, PMID 7948874 .
  5. ^ R. Hammami, J. Ben Hamida, G. Vergoten, I. Fliss: PhytAMP: a database dedicated to antimicrobial plant peptides. In: Nucleic Acids Research . Volume 37, Database issue January 2009, pp. D963-D968, doi : 10.1093 / nar / gkn655 , PMID 18836196 , PMC 2686510 (free full text).
  6. ↑ JJ Guzmán-Rodríguez, A. Ochoa-Zarzosa, R. López-Gómez, JE López-Meza: Plant Antimicrobial Peptides as Potential Anticancer Agents. In: BioMed research international. Volume 2015, 2015, p. 735087, doi : 10.1155 / 2015/735087 , PMID 25815333 , PMC 4359852 (free full text).