Dozens of studies have assessed the practical value of plant cystatins as ectopic inhibitors of Cys proteases in biological systems. The potential of these proteins in crop protection to control herbivorous pests and pathogens has been documented extensively over the past 25 years. Their usefulness to regulate endogenous Cys proteases in planta has also been considered recently, notably to implement novel traits of agronomic relevance in crops or to generate protease activity-depleted environments in plants or plant cells used as bioreactors for recombinant proteins. After a brief update on the basic structural characteristics of plant cystatins, we summarize recent advances on the use of these proteins in plant biotechnology. Attention is also paid to the molecular improvement of their structural properties for the improvement of their protease inhibitory effects or the fine-tuning of their biological target range.

中文翻译：

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植物中的重组胱抑素。

数十项研究评估了植物胱抑素在生物系统中作为Cys蛋白酶异位抑制剂的实用价值。这些蛋白质在作物保护中控制草食性害虫和病原体的潜力已在过去25年中得到了广泛的证明。最近还考虑了它们在植物体内调节内源性Cys蛋白酶的有用性，特别是在农作物中实现农艺相关性的新特性或在用作重组蛋白生物反应器的植物或植物细胞中产生蛋白酶活性降低的环境。在简要介绍了植物胱抑素的基本结构特征后，我们总结了在植物生物技术中使用这些蛋白质的最新进展。