- Thionin
Thionin, also known as thionin acetate or Lauth's violet, is a strongly staining metachromatic dye that are widely used for biological staining. Stainsfile entry: [http://stainsfile.info/StainsFile/dyes/52000.htm] Thionin can also be used in place of
Schiff reagent in quantitativeFeulgen stain ing of DNA. It can also be used to mediate electron transfer inmicrobial fuel cell s.Fact|date=April 2008Thionins can also refer to a family of peptides found solely in
higher plants . Typically, a thionin consists of 45–48amino acid residues. 6–8 of these arecysteine forming 3–4disulfide bonds . Some thionins havecytotoxic activity and they are therefore interesting in the development of newdrugs againstcancer with novel action mechanisms. [Florack DE,Stiekema WJ., "Thionins: properties, possible biological roles and mechanisms of action.", Plant Mol Biol. 1994 Oct;26(1):25–37. ] [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=7948874&dopt=Abstract] As of yet, no thionin has ever been developed into an anti-cancer drug.Databases
A database for antimicrobial peptides, including thionins is available: PhytAMP (http://phytamp.pfba-lab.org) [cite journal |author=Hammami R, Ben Hamida J, Vergoten G, Fliss I, |title=PhytAMP: a database dadicated to plant antimicrobial peptides.|journal=Nucleic Acid Research |year=2008 |pmid=18836196 |doi=10.1093/nar/gkn655] .
Notes and references
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