Can plant defensins be used to engineer durable commercially useful fungal resistance in crop plants?

Plant defensins are cysteine-rich proteins that play an important role in defense against fungal pathogens. Because of their potent antifungal activity, they have a strong potential to be used for engineering disease resistance in crops. Significant advances have been made in elucidating their structure–activity relationships and modes of antifungal action. Their expression in transgenic plants provides resistance to fungal pathogens in crop plants. In this article, we review recent advances and offer future perspectives on the use of these proteins for engineering durable commercially useful disease resistance in transgenic crop plants.

► Plant defensins are cysteine-rich proteins with potent antifungal activity.
► Advances in elucidating structure–activity relationships of defensins.
► Plant defensins exhibit different modes of antifungal action.
► Potential of defensins for generation of disease resistant crops examined.