Purification of an Antifungal Peptide from Seeds of var. and Investigation of Its Antifungal Activity and Mechanism of Action.

In this study, a 8.5-kDa antifungal peptide designated as BGAP was purified from the crude extract of the seeds of var. by employing a protocol that comprised cation exchange chromatography on SP-Sepharose, cation exchange chromatography on Mono S and gel filtration chromatography on Superdex peptide. BGAP showed the highest amino acid sequence similarity to defensin peptides by mass spectrometric analysis. BGAP showed a broad spectrum of antifungal activity with a half maximal inhibitory concentration at 17.33 μg/mL, 12.37 μg/mL, 16.81 μg/mL, and 5.60 μg/mL toward , , and , respectively. The antifungal activity of BGAP remained stable (i) after heat treatment at 40-100 °C for 15 min; (ii) after exposure to solutions of pH 1-3 and 11-13 for 15 min; (iii) after incubation with solutions containing K⁺, Ca, Mg, Mn or Fe ions at the concentrations of 20-150 mmol/L for 2 h; and (iv) following treatment with 10% methyl alcohol, 10% ethanol, 10% isopropanol or 10% chloroform for 2 h. Fluorescence staining experiments showed that BGAP brought about an increase in cell membrane permeability, a rise in reactive oxygen species production, a decrease in mitochondrial membrane potential, and an accumulation of chitin at the hyphal tips of .