Isolation of a new cyclophilin-like protein from chickpeas with mitogenic, antifungal and anti-HIV-1 reverse transcriptase activities.

A protein designated chickpea cyclophilin-like antifungal protein (CLAP) was isolated from seeds of the chickpea (Cicer arietinum). Chickpea CLAP was characterized by a molecular weight of 18 kDa and an N-terminal sequence homologous to cyclophilins. The protein was isolated with a procedure involving affinity chromatography on Affi-gel blue gel and ion exchange chromatography on CM-Sepharose. In addition to an inhibitory effect on the growth of fungi including Rhizoctonia solani, Mycosphaerella arachidicola and Botrytis cinerea, the protein was capable of inhibiting human immunodeficiency virus-1 reverse transcriptase. Chickpea CLAP did not possess lectin and ribonuclease activities but it weakly inhibited translation in a rabbit reticulocyte lysate system. The protein stimulated 3H-thymidine incorporation by mouse splenocytes.