Peptide Conjugates Derived from flg15, Pep13, and PIP1 That Are Active against Plant-Pathogenic Bacteria and Trigger Plant Defense Responses
Àngel Oliveras, Cristina Camó, Pau Caravaca-Fuentes, Luís Moll, Gerard Riesco-Llach, Sergio Gil‐Caballero, Esther Badosa, Anna Bonaterra, Emilio Montesinos, Lídia Feliu, Marta Planas
Abstract
The consequences of plant pathogens on crop production together with the lack of effective and environmentally friendly pesticides evidence the need of new agents to control plant diseases. Antimicrobial and plant defense elicitor peptides have emerged as good candidates to tackle this problem. This study focused on combining these two types of peptides into a single conjugate with the aim to potentiate the activity of the individual fragments. Differences in the biological activity of the resulting peptide conjugates were obtained depending on their charge, amphipathicity, and hydrophobicity, as well as on the order of the conjugation of the monomers. This work provided bifunctional peptide conjugates able to inhibit several plant-pathogenic bacteria, to stimulate plant defense responses, and to reduce the severity of bacterial spot in tomato plants. Thus, this study could serve as the basis for the development of new antibacterial/plant defense elicitor peptides to control bacterial plant pathogens.