Purification of angularin, a novel antifungal peptide from adzuki beans

An antifungal peptide was isolated from the adzuki bean with a procedure involving affinity chromatography on Affi-gel blue gel and ion exchange chromatography on CM-Sepharose. The protein designated angularin was adsorbed on both types of chromatographic media and possessed a molecular weight of 8 kDa. Angularin exhibited antifungal activity against a variety of fungal species including Mycospharella arachidiocola and Botrytis cinerea. It inhibited mycelial growth in B. cinerea with an IC50 of 14.3 microM. Fusarium oxysporum and Rhizoctonia solani were not inhibited. Angularin demonstrated inhibitory activity on translation in the rabbit reticulocyte lysate system (IC50 = 8.0 microM) but did not affect proliferation of splenocytes. The activity of HIV-1 reverse transcriptase was inhibited in the presence of angularin. Its N-terminal sequence was GEPGQKE.