Plant defensins, innate components of the plant immune system, are cationic, antifungal peptides, with a cysteine- rich primary structure. Evidence from the literature demonstrated that fungus membrane patches containing complex sphingolipids, mannosyldiinositolphosphorylceramide and glucosylceramides, are selective binding sites for the plant defensins isolated from Dahlia merckii and Raphanus sativus, respectively. However, whether the plant defensins interact directly or indirectly with fungus intracellular targets is unknown. To identify direct physical protein-protein interactions, a GAL4-based yeast two-hybrid system was constructed, using the plant peptide, Pisum sativum defensin 1 (Psd1), as the bait protein. Target proteins, capable of interacting with the bait Psd1, were detected by screening a Neurospora crassa cDNA library. In this screening, nine out of fifteen two-hybrid candidates were identified as N. crassa nuclear proteins. One clone, detected with high frequency in the screening, presented sequence similarity to a N. crassa cyclin F, related to the cell cycle control. The GST pull- down co purification assay corroborated this two-hybrid result in vitro. Fluorescence microscopy analysis of FITC- conjugated Psd1 and DAPI-stained Fusarium solani nuclei demonstrated in vivo the co-localization of the plant peptide Psd1 and the fungus nuclei. We used the developing retina of neonatal rats as a multicellular model to study Psd1 mode of action at the cell cycle level. In this model, we observed in vivo the interkinetic nuclear migration, correlated to the transitions from S to M-phase of the cell cycle, in the presence of the Psd1 peptide. It was shown that Psd1 impaired nuclear migration of neuroblasts by arresting the cell cycle at the S to G2- phase transition. These results revealed modes of action of the plant defensin Psd1 upon the nuclear physiology.