Isolation of an antifungal thaumatin-like protein from kiwi fruits

A single-chain 21 kDa protein exhibiting antifungal activity against Botrytis cinerea and some suppressive effects on Mycosphaerella arachidicola and Coprinus comatus was isolated from kiwi fruits. The protein, designated kiwi fruit thaumatin-like protein, did not inhibit translation in the cell-free rabbit reticulocyte lysate system but inhibited HIV-1 reverse transcriptase. It was purified to apparent homogeneity using a procedure involving saline extraction, (NH(4))(2)SO(4) precipitation, ion exchange chromatography on DEAE-cellulose, affinity chromatography on Affi-gel blue gel, ion exchange chromatography on SP-Sepharose and gel filtration on Superdex 75, respectively.