Plant serine protease inhibitors: biotechnology application in agriculture and molecular farming

CLEMENTE, MARINA; CORIGLIANO, MARIANA G.; PARIANI, SEBASTIÁN A; SÁNCHEZ LÓPEZ, EDWIN F; SANDER, VALERIA A; RAMOS DUARTE, ANDRÉS V

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES

MOLECULAR DIVERSITY PRESERVATION INTERNATIONAL-MDPI

Lugar: Basilea; Año: 2019

1422-0067

The serine protease inhibitors (SPIs) are widelydistributed in living organisms like bacteria, fungi, plants, and humans. Themain function of SPIs as protease enzymes is to regulate the proteolyticactivity. In plants, most of the studies of SPIs have been focused on theirphysiological role. The initial studies carried out in plants showed that SPIsparticipate in the regulation of endogenous proteolytic processes, as theregulation of proteases in seeds. Besides, it was observed that SPIs alsoparticipate in the regulation of cell death during plant development andsenescence. On the other hand, plant SPIs have an important role in plantdefense against pests and phytopathogenic microorganisms. In the last 20 years,several transgenic plants over-expressing SPIs have been produced and tested inorder to achieve the increase of the resistance against pathogenic insects.Finally, in molecular farming, SPIs have been employed to minimize theproteolysis of recombinant proteins expressed in plants. The present reviewdiscusses the potential biotechnological applicationsof plant SPIs in the agriculture field.