An important method for plant genetic modification is using peptide/pDNA complexes to transfer genes into plant cells. With conventional carrier peptides, the peptide sequence must contain a high amount of cationic amino acids to condense and introduce pDNA. As a result, the dissociation of pDNA from the complex is inefficient, often causing problems. Herein, we designed a new peptide carrier that mimics the basic leucine zipper (bZIP) domain of DNA-binding proteins, in which (LU)₄ is the leucine zipper motif and (KUA)₃ is the basic DNA-binding and cell-penetrating motif (U = α-aminoisobutyric acid). After (KUA)₃-(LU)₄ peptide was mixed with pDNA, DNA molecules were condensed to form nanoparticles of approximately 130 nm. Furthermore, when complexes of (KUA)₃-(LU)₄ peptide and pDNA were introduced into the leaves of Arabidopsis thaliana (A. thaliana), expression of the reporter protein was detected in the plant cells. Thus, (KUA)₃-(LU)₄ peptide that mimics the bZIP domain is a novel and efficient carrier for pDNA with high dissociation efficiency.

植物遗传修饰的一个重要方法是使用肽/pDNA复合物将基因转移到植物细胞中。对于传统的载体肽，肽序列必须含有大量的阳离子氨基酸以缩合和引入pDNA。因此，pDNA 从复合物中解离的效率很低，常常会引起问题。在此，我们设计了一种新的肽载体，模拟DNA结合蛋白的基本亮氨酸拉链（bZIP）结构域，其中（LU）₄是亮氨酸拉链基序，（KUA）₃是基本的DNA结合和细胞穿透结构域。基序（U = α-氨基异丁酸）。(KUA) ₃ -(LU) ₄肽与pDNA混合后，DNA分子凝聚形成约130 nm的纳米颗粒。此外，当将(KUA) ₃ -(LU) ₄肽和pDNA的复合物引入拟南芥( A. thaliana )的叶子时，在植物细胞中检测到报告蛋白的表达。因此，模拟bZIP结构域的(KUA) ₃ -(LU) ₄肽是一种新型且有效的pDNA载体，具有高解离效率。