1. Isolation of a novel deoxyribonuclease with antifungal activity from Asparagus officinalis seeds
H Wang, T B Ng Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2001 Nov 23;289(1):120-4. doi: 10.1006/bbrc.2001.5963.
A deoxyribonuclease distinct from the previously isolated asparagus ribosome-inactivating proteins, possessing a molecular weight of 30 kDa and requiring a pH of 7.5 for optimum hydrolytic activity toward herring sperm DNA, was isolated from Asparagus officinalis seeds. The isolation procedure involved extraction with saline, (NH(4))(2)SO(4) precipitation, ion-exchange chromatography on DEAE-cellulose, affinity chromatography on Affi-gel blue gel, ion-exchange chromatography on CM-Sepharose, and FPLC gel filtration on Superdex 75. The doxyribonuclease was unadsorbed onto DEAE-cellulose and Affi-gel blue gel and adsorbed onto CM-Sepharose. It exhibited the novel N-terminal sequence, GIEVIKIREL. The deoxyribonuclease was purified to a specific activity of 1584 units/mg. It was devoid of ribonuclease, protease, and HIV-1 reverse transcriptase-inhibitory activities. However, it inhibited cell-free translation in a rabbit reticulocyte lysate system with an IC(50) of 20 microM. It exhibited antifungal activity toward Botrytis cinerea but not toward Fusarium oxysporum and Mycosphaerella arachidicola.
2. Novel antifungal peptides from Ceylon spinach seeds
H Wang, T B Ng Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2001 Nov 9;288(4):765-70. doi: 10.1006/bbrc.2001.5822.
Two novel antifungal peptides, designated alpha- and beta-basrubrins, respectively, were isolated from seeds of the Ceylon spinach Basella rubra. The purification procedure involved saline extraction, (NH(4))(2)SO(4) precipitation, ion exchange chromatography on DEAE-cellulose, affinity chromatography on Affi-gel blue gel, ion exchange chromatography on CM-cellulose and FPLC-gel filtration on Superdex peptide column. alpha- and beta-basrubrins exhibited a molecular weight of 4.3 and 5 kDa, respectively. They inhibited translation in a rabbit reticulocyte system with an IC(50) value of 400 and 100 nM, respectively. alpha- and beta-basrubrin inhibited HIV-1 reverse transcriptase by (79.4 +/- 7.8)% and (54.6 +/- 3.6)%, respectively, at a concentration of 400 microM, and (10.56 +/- 0.92)% and (2.12 +/- 0.81)%, respectively, at a concentration of 40 microM. Both alpha- and beta-basrubrins exerted potent antifungal activity toward Botrytis cinerea, Mycosphaerella arachidicola, and Fusarium oxysporum.
3. Gymnin, a potent defensin-like antifungal peptide from the Yunnan bean (Gymnocladus chinensis Baill)
Jack H Wong, T B Ng Peptides. 2003 Jul;24(7):963-8. doi: 10.1016/s0196-9781(03)00192-x.
From the seeds of the Yunnan bean, we purified an antifungal peptide using affinity chromatography on Affi-gel blue gel, FPLC-ion exchange chromatography on Mono S, and FPLC-gel filtration on Superdex 75. The antifungal peptide was adsorbed on Affi-gel blue gel at pH 7.8 and Mono S at pH 4.5. It exhibited a molecular mass of 6.5 kDa in both gel filtration and sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Its N-terminal sequence closely resembled defensin-related peptides. The peptide exerted antifungal activity toward the fungal species Fusarium oxysporum and Mycosphaerella arachidicola, with an IC50 of 2 microM for the former fungus and 10 microM for the latter. It manifested a weaker mitogenic activity toward murine splenocytes than Concanavalin A. It also displayed antiproliferative activity on a murine leukemia (L1210), a hepatoma (HepG2), and a murine leukemia (M1) cell line. It inhibited human immunodeficiency virus-1 reverse transcriptase with an IC50 of 200 microM.
