Donald Danforth Plant Science Center

Small Plant-derived Peptides With Potent Antifungal Activity Against Agriculturally Important Fungal Pathogens Have High Potential for Development as Environmentally Friendly, Sustainable Biofungicides. Chickpea Peptides Expressed in Nitrogen-fixing Nodules Exhibit Potent Antifungal Activity Against Pathogens. It Is Important to Determine If These Peptides Provide Protection From Disease When Sprayed on a Crop Plant and Understand the Mechanisms by Which They Kill a Fungal Pathogen.the Overarching Goal of the Work Is to Characterize Antifungal Activity of Three Different Peptides Derived From Chickpea, Determine How They Kill a Fungal Pathogen and Test Their Ability to Protect Pepper Plants From a Fungal Pathogen Botrytis Cinerea Which Causes Gray Mold Disease in Vegetable and Fruits.we Will (i) Identify Molecules in the Fungal Cell Wall That Antifungal Peptides Bind to, (II) Determine How These Peptides Get Into Fungal Cells and Cause Cell Death, (III) Determine How Three Different Peptides Differ in Their Structures and Ability to Protect Pepper Plants From the Gray Mold Disease.this Project Will Identify Peptides With Potent Antifungal Activity and Shed Light on Their Mechanisms of Action. It Will Provide Crucial Information for Development of These Peptides as Second-generation Sprayable Fungicides.this Project Will Expand Our Knowledge of Plant-derived Antifungal Peptides With Mechanism of Action Different From Conventional Fungicides and Identify Specific Peptides With Potential for Commercial Development as Sustainable Bio-fungicides.