Plant Antimicrobial Peptides (PAMPs) as Biotechnological Tools

Plant immune responses involve a variety of physiological reactions that are induced by pathogen recognition, including hypersensitive responses, cell wall modifications, as well as the production of molecules such as antimicrobial peptides and metabolites. These bioactive molecules have been deeply studied in favor of the use and development of new drugs that benefit humans, whether applied to human health, veterinary or agriculture. Among the strategies applied for the use and improvement of these molecules, we can list the reduction of toxicity, size reduction, and increase in target specificity, providing the generation of more powerful and applicable analogues, for example, in order to reduce side effects and costs. Moreover, plant peptides have the advantages of a wide distribution and relatively abundant sources.

This Research Topic aims to illuminate advances within plant science, aiming at the use of peptides in biotechnology as a platform for improving human and animal health and, also agribusiness applications. This Research Topic also provides an appreciation/recognition on naturally-occurring PAMP contributions from past and present. Also, this Research Topic also covers themes from discovery to drug design, and basic research to recent advances on biotechnology production/applications

This Research Topic welcome Original Research, Reviews and Analysis focusing on, but not limited to, the following subjects:.

• PAMP structure-activity relationship

• PAMP as templates for peptide reengineering (e.g. chemical modifications)

• PAMP biotechnological applications (e.g. nanotechnology)

• PAMP drug design based on in silico modelling

• PAMP past and present discovery and challenges

• PAMP medicinal applications

• PAMP agriculture applications (an alternative natural pesticides)

• PAMP scalable production (e.g. bacteria/yeast expression)

• PAMP past and present approved drugs

• PAMP genome, transcriptome, and proteome (e.g. transcriptome profiling)