Yuan, N., Dai, C., Ling, X. et al. Peptidomics-based study reveals that GAPEP1, a novel small peptide derived from pathogenesis-related (PR) protein of cotton, enhances fungal disease resistance, Mol Breeding (2019) 39: 156.

Peptides play important roles in many important biological processes. For instance, plant antimicrobial peptides, which are essential components of innate immunity and exert rapid defense response, have a broad activity against pathogenic bacteria, fungi, enveloped viruses, and parasites. Verticillium wilt, caused by the soil-borne fungus Verticillium dahliae, is a destructive vascular disease in plants. In this study, we used mass spectrometry approach to detect and characterize important peptides, especially antimicrobial peptides from roots of Gossypium arboretum and to evaluate their inhibitory activities against phytopathogenic fungi. We have identified a novel small peptide, GAPEP1, which is derived from the N-terminal of Pathogenesis-related protein STH-2 protein and upregulated by V. dahliae inoculation. GAPEP1 is localized in the nucleus and cell membrane. Plants with exogenous treatment or overexpressing GAPEP1 both exhibited enhanced disease resistance as compared with the control group. Our results provide the cotton endogenous peptides library that could potentially be used to develop natural, targeted, and environmentally friendly strategies to enhance the resistance of Gossypium species against biotic attackers.