Osmotin, a Pathogenesis-Related Protein

Abstract

Plants protect themselves from pathogen invasion through the local expression of a variety of pathogenesis-related proteins. They are highly diverse in both primary structure and length, and exhibit different direct antimicrobial activity. This text reviews the knowledge of osmotin, antimicrobial protein involved in innate immunity of plants. Osmotin belongs to the fifth class of the group of pathogenesis-related (PR) proteins and has been found in different plants species, in every case osmotin is cysteine-rich protein involved in plant defense responses to several pathogens and abiotic stresses. The phylogenetic tree of amino acids compositions of osmotins from different plant species is presented and the basic similarities of clusters are discussed in this review. Osmotin gene is activated by different biotic as well as abiotic signals and has many functions. The review summarizes biochemical and structural properties, induction, functions and structural homology between osmotin and other proteins. Recent data about recombinant production in bacterial and plant cells are examined. The article indicates possible ways of osmotin application in research in the field of functional biology, medicine and agriculture.

An osmotin from the resurrection plant Tripogon loliiformis (TlOsm) confers tolerance to multiple abiotic stresses in transgenic rice

“…It is generally accepted that the plasma membrane contains proteins that are fundamental for stress‐signal perception and transduction of stress signals into downstream cellular responses. Previous studies have shown that plant osmotin and OLPs are likely to be situated within a signal transduction pathway of stress response (Abdin et al , Husaini and Rafiqi , Viktorova et al ). Our results on the plasma membrane localization and early activation of mRNA in stress response of TlOsm strongly support its function in stress signaling pathway.…”

“…Among the potential stress‐responsive candidate genes identified from the highly drought‐tolerant plant T . loliiformis , the osmotin gene ( TlOsm ) represents one of the most potent candidates for improving crop tolerance to abiotic stresses through genetic engineering due to increasing evidence supporting the role of osmotin as key regulators in response to abiotic stresses (Husaini and Rafiqi , Viktorova et al , Kumar et al ).…”

“…These reactions are fundamental to most signaling and regulatory processes associated with enzyme activation, macro‐molecule assembly, protein localization and degradation in plant stress responses. Consequently, osmotins were recently suggested to play a role as a regulator in plant stress tolerance via cell signaling (Viktorova et al ). Although the mode of action of osmotins remains unclear, their multifunctional nature suggests that they are the key regulators mediating plant response to biotic and abiotic stresses.…”

Comprehensive insights on how 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid retards senescence in post-harvest citrus fruits using transcriptomic and proteomic approaches

“…Correspondingly, the protease inhibitor, miraculin-like protein 2, which contains a thaumatin motif and has antifungal activity (Tsukuda et al , 2006), was highly expressed at the protein level (Supplementary Table S6, spot a26). It is worth noting that miraculin-like protein and osmotin 34 (Supplementary Table S6, spot 1) were involved in plant tolerance to pathogen infections and resistance to water deficiency (Gimeno et al , 2009; Viktorova et al , 2012). HSPs play important roles in the re-establishment of cellular homeostasis by partially binding to the denatured proteins and preventing irreversible protein inactivation and aggregation under raised heat conditions.…”

Drought and heat stress-related proteins: an update about their functional relevance in imparting stress tolerance in agricultural crops

“…Osmotic adjustment is a key phenomenon for maintaining water balance and cell turgor during osmotic stress and thus contributes to enhanced photosynthetic efficiency and growth (Das and Chakraborty 2016). Osmotins impart osmo-tolerance to plants possibly through ion sequestration or conferring protection through some structural or metabolic alterations at the cellular and molecular level (Viktorova et al 2012). Along with OLPs (Osmotin-like proteins), they negotiate abiotic stress responses in plants and their increased expression is mostly determined by drought (Atkinson and Urwin 2012), desiccation, or chilling/freezing stress (Aslam et al 2009).…”