ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are synthesized by all kingdoms in smalldefense molecules. These peptides are short in length, generally contain fewer than 50 amino acids, have broad antimicrobial spectra, and can be categorized according to their structures and amino acid motifs. As sessile organisms, plants experience several types of biotic stress factors including viruses, bacteria, protozoa, fungi, nematodes, and insects. Therefore, plants can be expected to have resistance mechanisms to overcome the yield losses caused by phytopathogens. AMPs are also isolated by a wide variety of plant species to develop protection against phytopathogenic agents that cause decreases in quality and agricultural losses. To date, several types of plant AMPs such as thionins, defensins, lipid-transfer proteins, cyclotides, and snakins have been isolated from diverse plant species. Their structures, mechanisms, and activities for the regulation of plant disease resistance have been discovered. Protection against phytopathogens has been developed on the basis of AMPs by expressing the AMPencoding genes from diverse types of organisms including animals, plants, fungi, and bacteria in transgenic plants. In addition, new synthetic peptides have been designed and constructed for the enhancement of plant disease resistance. The growing databases for AMPs resources, such as PhtyAMP, CyBase, and APD2, include valuable sequences, structures, and literature that presents subjects that are useful for further discoveries.
