Synthetic Peptides against Plant Pathogenic Bacteria

• Published in: Microorganisms (Basel) Vol. 10; no. 9; p. 1784
• Main Authors: Badosa, Esther, Planas, Marta, Feliu, Lidia, Montesinos, Laura, Bonaterra, Anna, Montesinos, Emilio
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.09.2022; MDPI
• Subjects: Amino acids; Antibiotics; Antiinfectives and antibacterials; Antimicrobial agents; Antimicrobial peptides; Bacteria; Bacteria, Phytopathogenic; Bactericidal activity; Biodegradability; Biodegradation; Biological activity; Biological properties; biopesticides; Control; Crop production; Design; Disease control; Disease prevention; Environmental aspects; Flowers & plants; Food security; Hydrocarbons; Libraries; lytic peptides; pathogenic bacteria; Pathogens; Peptide libraries; Peptides; Pesticides; plant defense; Plant diseases; Plant protection; Review; Synthetic peptides; Toxicity; Spain
• ISSN: 2076-2607; 2076-2607
• DOI: 10.3390/microorganisms10091784

The control of plant diseases caused by bacteria that seriously compromise crop productivity around the world is still one of the most important challenges in food security. Integrated approaches for disease control generally lack plant protection products with high efficacy and low environmental and health adverse effects. Functional peptides, either from natural sources or synthetic, are considered as novel candidates to develop biopesticides. Synthetic peptides can be obtained based on the structure of natural compounds or de novo designed, considering the features of antimicrobial peptides. The advantage of this approach is that analogues can be conveniently prepared, enabling the identification of sequences with improved biological properties. Several peptide libraries have been designed and synthetized, and the best sequences showed strong bactericidal activity against important plant pathogenic bacteria, with a good profile of biodegradability and low toxicity. Among these sequences, there are bacteriolytic or antibiofilm peptides that work against the target bacteria, plant defense elicitor peptides, and multifunctional peptides that display several of these properties. Here, we report the research performed by our groups during the last twenty years, as well as our ongoing work. We also highlight those peptides that can be used as candidates to develop novel biopesticides, and the main challenges and prospects.