Journal of Plant Sciences

Special Issue

Proteins and Peptides: Biological Application in Agricultural and Heath

  • Submission Deadline: 20 August 2020
  • Status: Submission Closed
  • Lead Guest Editor: Pedro Souza
About This Special Issue
Emergence and spread of resistant bacteria and fungi to conventional drugs suggest that the current strategies to treat microbial infections will no longer be effective within few years and thus evolution of antibiotic resistance will most likely become a public health calamity. Resistant bacteria and fungi are associated with several infectious diseases resulting in high mortality in patients. For example, infections caused by Candida spp. affect approximately 400,000 people per year with a mortality rate ranging from 10 to 25% depending on the immunological status of patients, while staphylococcal infection caused by Gram-positive bacteria Staphylococcus aureus result in 11,000 fatal victims annually. Antimicrobial peptides/proteins (AMPs) found in all organisms has been suggested as novel alternative anti-infective drugs to substitute or aid conventional treatments. Plants are a rich source of antimicrobial molecules with higher potential to be used as new molecules or a source to design new molecules to help with this health problem. Over the year, many research groups around the world have striven to understand the mechanisms of action and the application of many antimicrobial plant AMPs with deleterious actions against human pathogenic bacteria have been isolated from leaves, flowers, stems, roots, corms, and seeds of arrange of species. However, seeds are the preferred source for extraction and purification of AMPs because there they are generally presenting higher concentrations. Consequently, several seed-derived proteins that prevent the development of a broad spectrum of bacteria have been studied, among them γ-thionins, cyclotides, defensins, and 2S albumins.
Aims and Scope:
  1. AMPs from plants
  2. Plants as source of therapeutic molecules
  3. Plant proteins
  4. Proteins peptide
  5. Antimicrobial
  6. Medicinal plants
Lead Guest Editor
  • Pedro Souza

    Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Federal University of Ceará, Fortaleza, Brazil

Guest Editors
  • Fredy Silva

    Department of Plant Pathology, Iowa State University, Ames, United States

  • Claudener Teixeira

    Department of Biochemistry, Federal University of Maranhão, Chapadinha, Brazil

  • Ayrles Brandão

    Department of Biochemistry, Federal University of Ceara, Fortaleza, Brazil

  • Lucas Dias

    Department of Biochemistry, Federal University of Ceara, Fortaleza, Brazil

  • Muhammad Hidayatullah Khan

    Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Science & Technology of China, Hefei, China