Antifungal properties of wheat histones (H1-H4) and purified wheat histone H1.

Wheat ( Triticum spp.) histones H1, H2, H3, and H4 were extracted, and H1 was further purified. The effect of these histones on specific fungi that may or may not be pathogenic to wheat was determined. These fungi included Aspergillus flavus , Aspergillus fumigatus , Aspergillus niger , Fusarium oxysporum , Fusarium verticillioides , Fusarium solani , Fusarium graminearum , Penicillium digitatum , Penicillium italicum , and Greeneria uvicola . Non-germinated and germinating conidia of these fungi were bioassayed separately. The non-germinated and germinating conidia of all Fusarium species were highly susceptible to the mixture (H1-H4) as well as pure H1, with viability losses of 99-100% found to be significant (p < 0.001) at ≤10 µM or less for the histone mixture and pure H1. F. graminearum was the most sensitive to histone activity. The histones were inactive against all of the non-germinated Penicillium spp. conidia. However, they significantly reduced the viability of the germinating conidia of the Penicillium spp. conidia, with 95% loss at 2.5 µM. Non-germinated and germinating conidia viability of the Aspergillus spp. and G. uvicola were unaffected when exposed to histones up to 10 µM. Results indicate that Fusarium spp. pathogenic to wheat are susceptible to wheat histones, indicating that these proteins may be a resistance mechanism in wheat against fungal infection.

A proline-rich region with a highly periodic sequence in Streptococcal beta protein adopts the polyproline II structure and is exposed on the bacterial surface.

Proline-rich regions have been identified in many surface proteins of pathogenic streptococci and staphylococci. These regions have been suggested to be located in cell wall-spanning domains and/or to be required for surface expression of the protein. Because little is known about these regions, which are found in extensively studied and biologically important surface proteins, we characterized the proline-rich region in one such protein, the beta protein of group B streptococci. The proline-rich region in beta, designated the XPZ region, has a proline at every third position, and the sequence is highly periodic in other respects. Immunochemical analysis showed that the XPZ region was not associated with the cell wall but was exposed on the bacterial surface. Moreover, characterization of a beta mutant lacking the XPZ region demonstrated that this region was not required for surface expression of the beta protein. Comparison of the XPZ region in different beta proteins showed that it varied in size but always retained the typical sequence periodicity. Circular dichroism spectroscopy indicated that the XPZ region had the structure of a polyproline II helix, an extended and solvent-exposed structure with exactly three residues per turn. Because of the three-residue sequence periodicity in the XPZ region, it is expected to be amphipathic and to have distinct nonpolar and polar surfaces. This study identified a proline-rich structure with unique properties that is exposed on the surface of an important human pathogen.