Transcriptomic Profile of Penicillium digitatum Reveals Novel Aspects of the Mode of Action of the Antifungal Protein AfpB
Carolina Ropero‐Pérez, Begoña Bolós, Moisés Giner‐Llorca, Antonella Locascio, Sandra Garrigues, Mónica Gandía, Paloma Manzanares, José F. Marcos
Abstract
Fungal infections threaten human health worldwide and have a negative impact on food security, damaging crop production and causing animal diseases. At present, only a few classes of fungicides are available due to the complexity of targeting fungi without affecting plant, animal, or human hosts. Moreover, the intensive use of fungicides in agriculture has led to the development of resistance. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop antifungal biomolecules with new modes of action to fight human-, animal-, and plant-pathogenic fungi. Fungal antifungal proteins (AFPs) offer great potential as new biofungicides to control deleterious fungi. However, current knowledge about their killing mechanism is still limited, which hampers their potential applicability. AfpB from P. digitatum is a promising molecule with potent and specific fungicidal activity. This study further characterizes its mode of action, opening avenues for the development of new antifungals.