Defense Peptides From the α-Hairpinin Family Are Components of Plant Innate Immunity

Plant immunity represents a sophisticated system, including both basal and inducible mechanisms, to prevent pathogen infection. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are among the innate immunity components playing a key role in effective and rapid response against various pathogens. This review is devoted to a small family of defense peptides called alpha-hairpinins. The general characters of the family, as well as the individual features of each member, including biological activities, structures of precursor proteins, and spatial structures, are described. Possible applications of alpha-hairpinin peptides in drug design are discussed.