Enhanced resistance to bacterial and fungal pathog... - LL-37 Study

Key Findings

The human LL-37 peptide can be produced in a plant system (cabbage).

Transgenic cabbage plants showed increased resistance to both bacterial and fungal pathogens.

Disease lesion size in the modified plants was reduced to under 50% of that in wild‑type plants.

Practical Outcomes

For biohackers focused on personal health, this study offers no direct protocol or dosage guidance. It simply confirms that LL-37 has antimicrobial effects in a plant context, which may be interesting but isn’t actionable for human longevity or performance optimization.

Summary

Scientists inserted the human antimicrobial peptide LL-37 into Chinese cabbage and found the engineered plants got better at fighting bacterial and fungal infections, with disease spots shrinking to less than half the size seen in normal plants.

Abstract

The human cathelicidin antimicrobial protein hCAP18, which includes the C-terminal peptide LL-37, is a multifunctional protein. As a possible approach to enhancing the resistance to plant disease, a DNA fragment coding for hCAP18/LL-37 was fused at the C-terminal end of the leader sequence of endopolygalacturonase-inhibiting protein under the control of the cauliflower mosaic virus 35S promoter region. The construct was then introduced into Brassica rapa. LL-37 expression was confirmed in transgenic plants by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and western blot analysis. Transgenic plants exhibited varying levels of resistance to bacterial and fungal pathogens. The average size of disease lesions in the transgenic plants was reduced to less than half of that in wild-type plants. Our results suggest that the antimicrobial LL-37 peptide is involved in wide-spectrum resistance to bacterial and fungal pathogen infection.

Study Information

Provider

pubmed

Year

2011

Date

2011-10-11T00:00:00.000Z

DOI

10.1007/s11816-011-0193-0