Defensin-like antifungal proteins secreted by filamentous fungi

Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Sciences and Informatics, University of Szeged, H6726, Szeged, Kozep fasor 52, Hungary *Corresponding author: email: galgoczi@gmail.com, Phone: +36 62 544 005, Fax: +36 62 544 823 The incidence of fungal infections has increased continuously during recent years in consequence of the increasing number of imunocompromised hosts and the occurring of antibiotic resistant strains. Another important aspect is that many filamentous fungi are destructive pathogens of plants and are thus responsible for enormous crop losses worldwide. Therefore, there is a substantial demand for new compounds with extensive antifungal activity. The proteins with similar structure like defensins secreted by filamentous fungi are interesting from this respect. These proteins secreted by taxonomical distinct species have different mode of action and species specificity, nevertheless, their structure is very similar. They are promising compounds in medical and agricultural fields; and their features (high stability and efficacy, safety application, limited toxicity and low costs of production) could make them suitable for use in practicable respects in the future.