Chinese Bulletin of Botany ›› 2008, Vol. 25 ›› Issue (05): 624-630.

• 专题介绍 • Previous Articles    

Advances in Vegetative Storage Proteins and Their Biological Functions

Min Zhang*   

  1. School of Life Sciences, Anhui University, Hefei 230039, China
  • Received:2008-04-14 Revised:2008-05-19 Online:2008-09-01 Published:2008-09-01
  • Contact: Min Zhang

Abstract: Vegetative storage proteins are abundant in vegetative tissues and exist widely in many plants. At first, they were known for storage of nitrogen. Vegetative storage proteins from different plants have different biochemical origins and biological properties. More importantly, in addition to their nutrient-reserve storage function, these proteins play various roles in plant defense, including anti-insect defense, resistance to microbial pathogens and signal transduction in plant defense. Therefore, vegetative storage proteins are promising for biopesticide application and genetic engineering of disease resistance in plants.