Characterization of cell-penetrating peptide complexation and interaction with plant cells

Abstract

Cell penetrating peptides (CPPs) are short 8-30 amino acid polypeptides that are able to transit across the semi-permeable plasma membrane of living cells, and deliver bound cargoes to the cytoplasm and other subcellular locations (e.g. nucleus, plastid organelles etc). The use of CPPs in plant cells and tissues remains a small and little researched field compared with the greater body of animal based research imperatives. The present research describes firstly, the measured interaction of the chosen model CPP Tat¬2 with the cell wall of microspores (i.e. microspore exine), secondly the reduction of the size and increase in regularity (measured as polydispersity) of Tat2 nucleic acid polyplexes and the unique empirical derivation of pseudo-kinetic parameters of nucleic acid CPP aggregation. Additionally several attempts to apply the findings from this research in plant cells and tissues are presented and discussed throughout.