Resumen de Rice seeds as biofactories of the production of antimicrobial peptides
A series of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) derived from the BP134 peptide (a member of the CECMEL11 library) exhibited potent bactericidal effect and low cytotoxicity, and were selected for expression in transgenic rice. Transgenic plants were generated expressing a codon-optimized AMP, under the control of a seed-specific promoter. It was confirmed that the expected peptides accumulated in the transgenic rice seeds, but not in other plant tissues, resulting in enhanced levels of protection against bacterial and fungal plant pathogens. Procedures for purification of the AMPs from seeds have been established based on solubilization/selective precipitation and Weak Cation Exchange-Reverse Phase chromatography. One of the peptides obtained, the S-Cec A, exhibited a high antibacterial and bactericidal activity against Dickeya sp. The accumulation levels of the recombinant AMP peptides in rice seeds were dependent on the strategy used, and its production in seeds offers a promising perspective for the use of rice as biofactory
