The Plant Defensin Ppdef1 Is a Novel Topical Treatment for Onychomycosis.

Onychomycosis, or fungal nail infection, causes not only pain and discomfort but can also have psychological and social consequences for the patient. Treatment of onychomycosis is complicated by the location of the infection under the nail plate, meaning that antifungal molecules must either penetrate the nail or be applied systemically. Currently, available treatments are limited by their poor nail penetration for topical products or their potential toxicity for systemic products.

Field resistance to Fusarium oxysporum and Verticillium dahliae in transgenic cotton expressing the plant defensin NaD1.

The plant defensin NaD1, from Nicotiana alata, has potent antifungal activity against a range of filamentous fungi including the two important cotton pathogens, Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. vasinfectum (Fov) and Verticillium dahliae.

Characterization of the Arabidopsis lysine-rich arabinogalactan-protein AtAGP17 mutant (rat1) that results in a decreased efficiency of agrobacterium transformation.

Arabinogalactan-proteins (AGPs) are a family of complex proteoglycans widely distributed in plants. The Arabidopsis rat1 mutant, previously characterized as resistant to Agrobacterium tumefaciens root transformation, is due to a mutation in the gene for the Lys-rich AGP, AtAGP17. We show that the phenotype of rat1 correlates with down-regulation of AGP17 in the root as a result of a T-DNA insertion into the promoter of AGP17.

Using genomic resources to guide research directions. The arabinogalactan protein gene family as a test case.

Arabinogalactan proteins (AGPs) are extracellular hydroxyproline-rich proteoglycans implicated in plant growth and development. The protein backbones of AGPs are rich in proline/hydroxyproline, serine, alanine, and threonine. Most family members have less than 40% similarity; therefore, finding family members using Basic Local Alignment Search Tool searches is difficult.