Current and emerging analytical technologies for analyzing chitin-protein binding interactions

Abstract

Abstract Chitin, a small organic molecule commonly found in fungal cell walls and insect exoskeletons, has the ability to elicit an immune response in plants by binding to specific membrane-bound receptors. Understanding how plants detect and fend off deleterious fungi and insects will enable improved defense strategies against these pathogens. A wide array of techniques, including affinity binding studies, isothermal calorimetry, structural analysis, and molecular genomic methods have been used to identify and characterize chitin-binding receptors as well as the kinetic parameters of chitin-receptor interactions. There are a number of newly developed analytical technologies in mechanical, electrochemical, and optical biosensing that have great potential to further elucidate the interactions between chitin and its binding partners. In this review, we provide a detailed examination of the methods currently used to characterize chitin-binding interactions, along with emerging analytical techniques that have the potential to transform this area of study.