Peptides and small proteins exhibiting antimicrobial activity have been isolated from many organisms ranging from insects to humans, including plants. Their role in defense is established, and their use in agriculture was already being proposed shortly after their discovery. However, some natural peptides have undesirable properties that complicate their application. Advances in peptide synthesis and high-throughput activity screening have made possible the de novo and rational design of novel peptides with improved properties. This review summarizes findings in the identification and design of short antimicrobial peptides with activity against plant pathogens, and will discuss alternatives for their heterologous production suited to plant disease control. Recent studies suggest that peptide antimicrobial action is not due solely to microbe permeation as previously described, but that more subtle factors might account for the specificity and absence of toxicity of some peptides. The elucidation of the mode of action and interaction with microbes will assist the improvement of peptide design with a view to targeting specific problems in agriculture and providing new tools for plant protection.

中文翻译：

---

鉴定和合理设计用于植物保护的新型抗菌肽。

从许多生物体中分离出具有抗菌活性的肽和小蛋白质，从昆虫到人类，包括植物。他们在国防中的作用已经确立，发现后不久就已经提出了将其用于农业的建议。然而，一些天然肽具有不希望的性质，这使它们的应用复杂化。肽合成和高通量活性筛选的进展使得从头开始并合理设计具有改进特性的新型肽成为可能。这篇综述总结了鉴定和设计对植物病原体具有活性的短抗菌肽的发现，并将讨论适合植物病害防治的异源生产的替代方法。最近的研究表明，肽的抗微生物作用不仅是如前所述，不仅是由于微生物的渗透引起的，而且还有一些更细微的因素可以解释某些肽的特异性和无毒性。阐明作用方式和与微生物的相互作用将有助于改进肽的设计，以针对农业中的特定问题并提供用于植物保护的新工具。