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. 1988 Jun;7(6):1559–1565. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1988.tb02980.x

Leaf-specific thionins of barley—a novel class of cell wall proteins toxic to plant-pathogenic fungi and possibly involved in the defence mechanism of plants

Holger Bohlmann 1, Susanne Clausen 1, Susanna Behnke 1, Henriette Giese 1, Claudia Hiller 1, Ulrich Reimann-Philipp 1, Gesine Schrader 1, Vibeke Barkholt 2, Klaus Apel 1
PMCID: PMC457137  PMID: 16453847

Abstract

A novel class of highly abundant polypeptides with antifungal activity has been detected in cell walls of barley leaves. Similar polypeptides known as thionins occur not only in monocotyledonous but also in various dictoyledonous plants. The leaf-specific thionins of barley are encoded by a complex multigene family, which consists of at least 50-100 members per haploid genome. All of these genes are confined to chromosome 6. The toxicity of these thionins for plant pathogenic fungi and the fact that their synthesis can also be triggered by pathogens strongly suggest that thionins are a naturally occurring, inducible plant protein possibly involved in the mechanism of plant defence against microbial infections.

Keywords: cell wall protein, disease resistance, plant pathogen, thionin, plant defence, antifungal activity

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