Soyatoxina-2 - uma nova toxina de sementes de soja: aspectos estruturais, do mecanismo de ação e efeitos biológicos.

Abstract

Soyatoxin 2 (SYTX-2) is a toxic protein isolated from soybean seeds [Glycine max (L.) Merril], genotype BR-10, lethal to mice upon intraperitoneal injection (LD50 4.5 ± 0.1 mg/Kg body weight). The symptoms observed upon administration were pilloerection, tachycardia, paw and tail extending, diuresis and tonic-clonic convulsions prior to death. The SYTX-2 was purified from soybean crude extract by ammonium sulfate fractionation, ion-exchange (DEAE-cellulose), affinity (Sepharose-4B-trypsin) and gel filtration (Superdex 200HR 10/30) chromatography. Inclusion of 0.005 M dithiothreitol in the extracting and other buffers used during the purification process was crucial to obtain highly homogenous SYTX-2 and to preserve the toxicity. SYTX-2 is not a glycoprotein and has apparent molecular masses of 28.0 and 25.4 kDa as measured by SDS-PAGE and gel filtration in Superdex 200HR 10/30 column, respectively, and a molar extinction coefficient (ε1% 1cm) of 16.9. Its NH2-terminal sequence shows 75% identity with a class III acidic endochitinase from soybean seeds. Therefore, besides to its toxic properties, SYTX-2 presented chitinase activity of 1.34 nKat/mgP. This toxin, when in contact with the sciatic nerve of rats was able to increase the peak-to-peak amplitude, confirming its neurotoxic action. Moreover, SYTX-2 presented pro-inflammatory activity, inducing neutrophil migration into the peritoneal cavity of rats which peaked at 8 h after administration. Evaluation of its physiological role showed that SYTX-2 exerted negative effect on the development of the cowpea pest insect Callosobruchus maculates, particularly on adult emergence and in the mean larval development time. Additionally, SYTX-2 was toxic to Dysdercus peruvianus nymphs, as it caused reduction of both the body weight gain and survival rate. SYTX-2 also acted negatively on the root-knot nematode Meloidogyne incognita by hindering its mobility. On the other hand, SYTX-2 did not inhibit neither the spore germination nor the hyphal development of the phytopathogenic fungi Colletotrichum lindemuthianum, C. gloesporioides, Rhizoctonia solani, Cercospora kikuchii, Fusarium solani, F. oxysporum and Aspergillus niger, under the assay conditions carried out in this present work. In summary this study presents, for the first time, data on a neurotoxin protein with additional unusual chitinase activity, whose physiological role is likely related to the plant defense mechanisms. Accordingly, SYTX-2 possesses potential biotechnological application as a novel plant defensive agent against insect pests and parasitic nematodes.