Abstract

Fungi are far more complex organisms than viruses or bacteria and can develop numerous diseases in plants that cause loss of big portion of the crop every year. Another important aspect is that many filamentous fungi are destructive human pathogens and are thus responsible for enormous diseases in humans. A series of molecules with antifungal activity against different strains of fungi have been found in plants, which are of great importance to humans. Plants have developed various mechanisms to defend themselves against these fungi which include the production of low molecular weight secondary metabolites, proteins and peptides having antifungal activity. In this review, brief information like structure, source, mode of action of defense mechanism and their promising contribution in the field of medicine and agriculture is discussed. These molecules may be used directly or considered as a precursor for developing molecules with better therapeutic values. This review attempts to summarize the current status of important antifungal proteins from various natural occurring sources like plants, bacteria and insects.

Keywords: Pathogenesis-related proteins, β-glucanase, chitinases, thaumatin like protein.