DUF538 Protein Super Family is Predicted to be the Potential Homologue of Bactericidal/Permeability-Increasing Protein in Plant System

DUF538 protein super family includes a number of plant proteins that their role is not yet clear. These proteins have been frequently reported to be expressed in plants under various stressful stimuli such as bacteria and elicitors. In order to further understand about this protein family we utilized bioinformatics tools to analyze its structure in details. As a result, plants DUF538 was predicted to be the partial structural homologue of BPI (bactericidal/permeability increasing) proteins in mammalian innate immune system that provides the first line of defense against different pathogens including bacteria, fungi, viruses and parasites. Moreover, on the base of the experimental data, it was identified that exogenously applied purified fused product of Celosia DUF538 affects the bacterial growth more possibly similar to BPI through the binding to the bacterial membranes. In conclusion, as the first ever time report, we nominated DUF538 protein family as the potential structural and functional homologue of BPI protein in plants, providing a basis to study the novel functions of this protein family in the biological systems in the future.