Plant defensins are a family of small Cys-rich antifungal proteins that play important roles in plant defense against invading fungi. Structures of several plant defensins share a Cys-stabilized a/b-motif. Structural determinants in plant defensins that govern their antifungal activity and the mechanisms by which they inhibit fungal growth remain unclear. Alfalfa (Medicago sativa) seed defensin, MsDef1, strongly inhibits the growth of Fusarium graminearum in vitro, and its antifungal activity is markedly reduced in the presence of Ca 21. By contrast, MtDef2 from Medicago truncatula, which shares 65% amino acid sequence identity with MsDef1, lacks antifungal activity against F. graminearum. Characterization of the in vitro antifungal activity of the chimeras containing portions of the MsDef1 and MtDef2 proteins shows that the major determinants of antifungal activity reside in the carboxy-terminal region (amino acids 31-45) of MsDef1. We further define the active site by demonstrating that the Arg at position 38 of MsDef1 is critical for its antifungal activity. Furthermore, we have found for the first time, to our knowledge, that MsDef1 blocks the mammalian L-type Ca 21 channel in a manner akin to a virally encoded and structurally unrelated antifungal toxin KP4 from Ustilago maydis, whereas structurally similar MtDef2 and the radish (Raphanus sativus) seed defensin Rs-AFP2 fail to block the L-type Ca 21 channel. From these results, we speculate that the two unrelated antifungal proteins, KP4 and MsDef1, have evolutionarily converged upon the same molecular target, whereas the two structurally related antifungal plant defensins, MtDef2 and Rs-AFP2, have diverged to attack different targets in fungi.

Insulin secretion by pancreatic ␤-cells is stimulated by glucose, amino acids, and other metabolic fuels. Glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) has been shown to play a regulatory role in this process. The importance of GDH was underscored by features of hyperinsulinemia/hyperammonemia syndrome, where a dominant mutation causes the loss of inhibition by GTP and ATP. Here we report the effects of green tea polyphenols on GDH and insulin secretion. Of the four compounds tested, epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) and epicatechin gallate were found to inhibit GDH with nanomolar ED 50 values and were therefore found to be as potent as the physiologically important inhibitor GTP. Furthermore, we have demonstrated that EGCG inhibits BCH-stimulated insulin secretion, a process that is mediated by GDH, under conditions where GDH is no longer inhibited by high energy metabolites. EGCG does not affect glucose-stimulated insulin secretion under high energy conditions where GDH is probably fully inhibited. We have further shown that these compounds act in an allosteric manner independent of their antioxidant activity and that the ␤-cell stimulatory effects are directly correlated with glutamine oxidation. These results demonstrate that EGCG, much like the activator of GDH (BCH), can facilitate dissecting the complex regulation of insulin secretion by pharmacologically modulating the effects of GDH.

Glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) is found in all organisms and catalyzes the oxidative deamination of glutamate to 2-oxoglutarate. While this enzyme does not exhibit allosteric regulation in plants, bacteria, or fungi, its activity is tightly controlled by a number of compounds in mammals. We have previously shown that this regulation plays an important role in insulin homeostasis in humans and evolved concomitantly with a 48-residue "antenna" structure. As shown here, the antenna and some of the allosteric regulation first appears in the Ciliates. This primitive regulation is mediated by fatty acids and likely reflects the gradual movement of fatty acid oxidation from the peroxisomes to the mitochondria as the Ciliates evolved away from plants, fungi, and other protists. Mutagenesis studies where the antenna is deleted support this contention by demonstrating that the antenna is essential for fatty acid regulation. When the antenna from the Ciliates is spliced onto human GDH, it was found to fully communicate all aspects of mammalian regulation. Therefore, we propose that glutamate dehydrogenase regulation of insulin secretion is a example of exaptation at the molecular level where the antenna and associated fatty acid regulation was created to accommodate the changes in organelle function in the Ciliates and then later used to link amino acid catabolism and/or regulation of intracellular glutamate/glutamine levels in the pancreatic beta cells with insulin homeostasis in mammals.