TLPdb: A Resource for Thaumatin-Like Proteins.

Abstract

Antifungal proteins and peptides have drawn the attention of numerous plant biologists and Clinicians, owing to their potential value in protecting commercial crops as well as preventing fungal infections in humans. Various proteins and peptides, such as glucanases, chitinases, chitinase-like proteins, lectins, peroxidases, defensins, and lipid transfer proteins have antifungal activities. Thaumatin is a protein from a West African plant Thaumatococcus danielli that is sweet in taste but does not exhibit antifungal activities. Despite the structural similarities between thaumatins and thaumatin-like proteins (TLPs), TLPs are not sweet in taste, unlike thaumatins. We developed a thaumatin-like protein database of various organisms. TLPs are pathogenesis-related proteins (PR) with molecular masses of 20-26kDa. The amino acid residues of TLPs involved in an antifungal activity remain obscure and make it hard to receive comprehensive information on TLPs. The biggest problem in the wine industry is white haze, an undesirable feature of high-quality wine. Hence, the problem may be figured out with the easy accessibility of amino acid sequences and to generate infest resistant crops. Overall, we aimed to produce a freely accessible TLP database ( https://tlpdb.cftri.com ) that would provide substantive information in understanding the mechanistic facet of TLPs. Briefly, TLPdb contains sequences, structures, and amino acid compositions of validated, published TLP protein sequences (from the plant, fungal as well as animal sources). Thus, this work may yield valuable information that may be useful in understanding the mechanistic aspects of TLP activity and in the evolution of antifungal proteins and fungal resistant crops. TLPdb is a comprehensive thaumatin-like protein resource database of various organisms. The database can serve as a unique Bioinformatics tool for understanding the TLPs. This further may help in understanding and the development of fungal resistant crops. TLPdb is freely available at https://tlpdb.cftri.com .