Thionins cause the irreversible inactivation of β-glucuronidase (GUS) in vitro in a dose- and time-dependent manner. The enzyme is also sensitive to externally added thionins when expressed in the cytoplasmic compartment of tobacco protoplasts transformed with the Gus gene under the 35S promoter of the cauliflower mosaic virus. In protoplasts transformed with the Gus gene fused to a signal peptide, where GUS is translocated into the lumen of the endoplasmic reticulum, the activity is significantly increased both by externally-added and by transiently-expressed thionin, suggesting that it interferes with GUS secretion.
