Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2012, 13(11), 15042-15053; doi:10.3390/ijms131115042
Article

Antifungal Activity of (KW)n or (RW)n Peptide against Fusarium solani and Fusarium oxysporum

Ramamourthy Gopal 1 email, Hyungjong Na 2 email, Chang Ho Seo 3 email and Yoonkyung Park 1,2,* email
1 Research Center for Proteineous Materials, Chosun University, Gwangju 501-759, Korea 2 Department of Biotechnology, Chosun University, Gwangju 501-759, Korea 3 Department of Bioinformatics, Kongju National University, Kongju 314-701, Korea
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 16 July 2012; in revised form: 14 August 2012 / Accepted: 17 October 2012 / Published: 15 November 2012
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Green Biocides)
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Abstract: The presence of lysine (Lys) or arginine (Arg) and tryptophan (Trp) are important for the antimicrobial effects of cationic peptides. Therefore, we designed and synthesized a series of antimicrobial peptides with various numbers of Lys (or Arg) and Trp repeats [(KW and RW)n-NH2, where n equals 2, 3, 4, or 5]. Antifungal activities of these peptides increased with chain length. Light microscopy demonstrated that longer peptides (n = 4, 5) strongly inhibited in vitro growth of Fusarium solani, and Fusarium oxysporum, at 4–32 μM. Furthermore, longer peptides displayed potent fungicidal activities against a variety of agronomical important filamentous fungi, including F. solani and F. oxysporum, at their minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs). However, RW series peptides showed slightly higher fungicidal activities than KW peptides against the two strains. Taken together, the results of this study indicate that these short peptides would be good candidates for use as synthetic or transgenic antifungal agents.
Keywords: lysine; arginine; tryptophan; antifungal peptides; fungicidal

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MDPI and ACS Style

Gopal, R.; Na, H.; Seo, C.H.; Park, Y. Antifungal Activity of (KW)n or (RW)n Peptide against Fusarium solani and Fusarium oxysporum. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2012, 13, 15042-15053.

AMA Style

Gopal R, Na H, Seo CH, Park Y. Antifungal Activity of (KW)n or (RW)n Peptide against Fusarium solani and Fusarium oxysporum. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 2012; 13(11):15042-15053.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Gopal, Ramamourthy; Na, Hyungjong; Seo, Chang H.; Park, Yoonkyung. 2012. "Antifungal Activity of (KW)n or (RW)n Peptide against Fusarium solani and Fusarium oxysporum." Int. J. Mol. Sci. 13, no. 11: 15042-15053.

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