Amaranthin-Like Proteins with Aerolysin Domains in Plants

Abstract

Amaranthin is a homodimeric lectin that was first discovered in the seeds of Amaranthus caudatus and serves as a model for the family of amaranthin-like lectins. Though these lectins have been purified and characterized only from plant species belonging to the Amaranthaceae, evidence accumulated in recent years suggests that sequences containing amaranthin domains are widely distributed in plants. In this study, 84 plant genomes have been screened to investigate the distribution of amaranthin domains. A total of 265 sequences with amaranthin domains were retrieved from 34 plant genomes. Within this group of amaranthin homologs, 22 different domain architectures can be distinguished. The most common domain combination consists of two amaranthin domains followed by a domain with sequence similarity to aerolysin. The latter protein belongs to the group of β-pore-forming toxins produced by bacteria such as Aeromonas sp. and exerts its toxicity by making transmembrane pores in the target membrane, as such facilitating bacterial invasion. In addition, amaranthin domains also occur in association with five other protein domains, including the fascin domain, the alpha/beta hydrolase domain, the TRAF-like domain, the B box type zinc finger domain and the Bet v1 domain. All 16 amaranthin-like proteins retrieved from the cucumber genome possess a similar domain architecture consisting of two amaranthin domains linked to one aerolysin domain. Based on phylogenetic differences, four sequences were selected for further investigation. Subcellular localization studies revealed that the amaranthin-like proteins from cucumber reside in the cytoplasm and/or the nucleus. Analyses using qPCR showed that the transcript levels for the amaranthin-like sequences are typically low and expression levels vary among tissues during the development of cucumber plants. Furthermore, the expression of amaranthin-like genes is enhanced after different abiotic stresses, suggesting that these amaranthin-like proteins play a role in the stress response. Finally, molecular modeling was performed to unravel the structure of amaranthin-like proteins and their carbohydrate-binding sites. This study provided valuable information on the distribution, phylogenetic relationships, and possible biological roles of amaranthin-like proteins in plants.

Messages From the Past: New Insights in Plant Lectin Evolution

“…This is in line with a recent study, in which amaranthin sequences were identified in 33 plant genomes. Here, a similar complex distribution pattern was also observed (Dang et al, 2017).…”

130 years of Plant Lectin Research

“…In addition, a proliferative effect of amaranthin on human colon carcinoma cells has been documented [ 44 , 45 ]. Although amaranthins have been considered to be unique for the Amaranthaceae family for a long time, amaranthin-related sequences are present in 34 out of 84 screened plant genomes including ferns, lycophytes and gymnosperms [ 28 , 46 ]. Amaranthins occur as hololectins but several chimerolectins containing an amaranthin domain linked to an aerolysin toxin domain have also been reported [ 46 ].…”

Acibenzolar-S-Methyl Reprograms Apple Transcriptome Toward Resistance to Rosy Apple Aphid

“…Our description of apple amaranthin-like lectins completes the recent description performed by Dang et al (2017), although it did not allow us to identify tri-agglutinin encoding genes. Surprisingly, all mono-agglutinin encoding genes escaped the automatic annotation pipeline used for GDDH13 annotation.…”