NORMAL GENOMIC

• Bayer H, Ey N, Wattenberg A, Voss C, Berger MR
• Purification and characterization of riproximin from Ximenia americana fruit kernels.
• Protein Expr Purif. 2012; 82: 97-105
• Display abstract

• Highly pure riproximin was isolated from the fruit kernels of Ximenia americana, a defined, seasonally available and potentially unlimited herbal source. The newly established purification procedure included an initial aqueous extraction, removal of lipids with chloroform and subsequent chromatographic purification steps on a strong anion exchange resin and lactosyl-Sepharose. Consistent purity and stable biological properties were shown over several purification batches. The purified, kernel-derived riproximin was characterized in comparison to the African plant material riproximin and revealed highly similar biochemical and biological properties but differences in the electrophoresis pattern and mass spectrometry peptide profile. Our results suggest that although the purified fruit kernel riproximin consists of a mixture of closely related isoforms, it provides a reliable basis for further research and development of this type II ribosome inactivating protein (RIP).

• Hammami R, Ben Hamida J, Vergoten G, Fliss I
• PhytAMP: a database dedicated to antimicrobial plant peptides.
• Nucleic Acids Res. 2009; 37: 9638-9638
• Display abstract

• Plants produce small cysteine-rich antimicrobial peptides as an innate defense against pathogens. Based on amino acid sequence homology, these peptides were classified mostly as alpha-defensins, thionins, lipid transfer proteins, cyclotides, snakins and hevein-like. Although many antimicrobial plant peptides are now well characterized, much information is still missing or is unavailable to potential users. The compilation of such information in one centralized resource, such as a database would therefore facilitate the study of the potential these peptide structures represent, for example, as alternatives in response to increasing antibiotic resistance or for increasing plant resistance to pathogens by genetic engineering. To achieve this goal, we developed a new database, PhytAMP, which contains valuable information on antimicrobial plant peptides, including taxonomic, microbiological and physicochemical data. Information is very easy to extract from this database and allows rapid prediction of structure/function relationships and target organisms and hence better exploitation of plant peptide biological activities in both the pharmaceutical and agricultural sectors. PhytAMP may be accessed free of charge at http://phytamp.pfba-lab.org.