Vanderlan da Silva Bolzani
Vanderlan da Silva Bolzani (UNESP, Araraquara/Brazil)
Peptides from Violaceae plant species, Discovering New Biologically Active Compounds from Brazilian Biodiversity
Jenny Garavito Najas, Meri Emili Pinto, Angelo da Cunha Pinto1, Eduardo Mafud Cilli, Christian W. Gruber2,, Vanderlan da Silva Bolzani
Recently, we have turned our attention on Brazilian plant species that accumulate peptides with interesting structural features, ecological functions and potential pharmacological properties. Some species of Violaceae, as Viola subdimidiata A.St.- Hil, Viola cerasifolia A.St.-Hil, Noisettia orchidiflora (Rudge) Ging and Hybanthus calceolaria are sources of several peptides, and our studies on these species aimed at the isolation of cyclotides, another class of plant-derived cyclic peptides that have been associated with several interesting bioactive properties for agricultural and pharmaceutical applications1,2. Currently we are characterizing the primary structure of several Hybanthus cyclotides, as well as the differences of the chemical composition of the isolates in different tissues of H. calceolaria. Generally conformational analysis of these cyclic peptides has been performed using NMR experiments and computational geometry calculations. Biological activities are currently being evaluated and will be presented. [Financial Support: Biota-FAPESP, CNPq, CAPESP, FINEP].
Reference
1. Simonsen S.M., Sando L., Ireland D.C., Colgrave M.L., Bharathi R., Göransson U., Craik D.J. A continent of plant defense peptide diversity: cyclotides in Australian Hybanthus (Violaceae). Plant Cell, v. 17, p. 3176-3189, 2005.
2. Gruber C.W., Elliott A.G., Ireland D.C., Delprete P.G., Dessein S., Göransson U., Trabi M., Wang C.K., Kinghorn A.B., Robbrecht E, Craik D.J. Distribution and evolution of circular miniproteins in flowering plants. Plant Cell. v. 20, p. 2471-83. 2008.
