Abstract
In this paper, peptide conjugates were designed and synthesized by incorporating the antimicrobial undecapeptide BP16 at the C- or N-terminus of the plant defense elicitor peptide flg15, leading to BP358 and BP359, respectively. The evaluation of their in vitro activity against six plant pathogenic bacteria revealed that BP358 displayed MIC values between 1.6 and 12.5 μM, being more active than flg15, BP16, BP359, and an equimolar mixture of BP16 and flg15. Moreover, BP358 was neither hemolytic nor toxic to tobacco leaves. BP358 triggered the overexpression of 6 out of the 11 plant defense-related genes tested. Interestingly, BP358 inhibited Erwinia amylovora infections in pear plants, showing slightly higher efficacy than the mixture of BP16 and flg15, and both treatments were as effective as the antibiotic kasugamycin. Thus, the bifunctional peptide conjugate BP358 is a promising agent to control fire blight and possibly other plant bacterial diseases.
Highlights
Fire blight caused by Erwinia amylovora is one of the main diseases that affect plants of the family Rosaceae, causing substantial production losses worldwide in important fruit crops, such as apple and pear trees [1,2,3,4]
Peptide conjugates were designed by combining the antimicrobial peptide BP16 and the plant defense elicitor peptide flg15 (Table 1)
The synthesis was performed in solid-phase following a standard 9-fluorenylmethoxycarbonyl (Fmoc)/tert-butyl (t Bu) strategy to yield a C-terminal amide for BP16 and BP358 and a
Summary
Fire blight caused by Erwinia amylovora is one of the main diseases that affect plants of the family Rosaceae, causing substantial production losses worldwide in important fruit crops, such as apple and pear trees [1,2,3,4]. Management of fire blight relies on a combination of strategies that include cultural practices and/or the use of tolerant cultivars and of preventive bactericide sprays [3]. Preventive applications of bactericides, such as antibiotics and copper compounds, for the control of fire blight, have several drawbacks. In the case of copper compounds, they are not always effective, even after multiple applications, and they may cause phytotoxicity by increasing fruit russeting [8]. These limitations entail an impending need to find safer and more effective methods to combat fire blight
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