Changes in proteolytic activity and protein carbonylation in shoots of Alyssum montanum ecotypes under multi-metal stress
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Updated: Feb 1, 2026

A Fluorogenic Peptide Cleavage Assay to Screen for Proteolytic Activity: Applications for coronavirus spike protein activation
Published on: January 9, 2019
Ewa Muszyńska1, Mateusz Labudda2, Ewa Hanus-Fajerska3
1Department of Botany, Faculty of Agriculture and Biology, Warsaw University of Life Sciences-SGGW, Nowoursynowska 159, 02-776, Warsaw, Poland.
Abstract:
The aim of present study was to evaluate the proteolytic response of metallicolous (M) and nonmetallicolous (NM) ecotypes of Alyssum montanum under heavy metals (HMs) stress. Therefore, shoot cultures of tested species grown on medium enriched simultaneously with 0.7 mM ZnSO4, 3.0 μM Pb(NO3)2 and 16.4 μM CdCl2 and these concentration corresponded to the content of their soluble forms marked in calamine substrate. After 8 weeks of cultivation, the overall protease activity (azocaseinolytic) and determination of the proteolytic (gelatinolytic) enzymes profile were estimated in HMs-treated and untreated specimens. The proteins of NM specimens were more susceptible to proteolysis induced by HMs than proteins of M ones. It was found that applied HMs ions caused an increase of protease activity in HMs-treated shoots of NM ecotype that was accompanied by diminished total soluble proteins content and their higher carbonylation. In contrast, the activities of the neutral proteases and metal-dependent serine proteases decreased in HMs-treated shoots of M ecotype. Our results have revealed significant differences at the protein metabolism level in contrasting A. montanum ecotypes cultured in vitro in the presence of HMs.
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