| Popis: |
Phoratoxin-A, a mistletoe toxin, is a member of a family of small (5000 kD MW) plant toxins. One inactive member of this family, crambin, has had its crystal structure determined at atomic resolution (0.83A, Teeter, et al, 1993). This chapter will focus mostly on the toxins, especially phoratoxin- A. These proteins are active both in membrane lysis (Bohlmann, H. and Apel, K., 1991) as well as on the intracellular level (Carrasco, L., et al,. 1991). They cause membrane leakage and cell lysis perhaps by interacting directly with phospholipids, although bacteriostatic activity was also shown. The bacteriostatic activity can be related to intracellular targets, such as calmodulin for which binding and a reasonable atomic model has been demonstrated (Rao, U., et al, 1992). |
