Evaluation of Tolerance to Pierce's Disease and Botrytis in Transgenic Plants of Vitis Vinifera L. Expressing the Pear Pgip Gene

Genomic Insights into Xylella fastidiosa Interactions with Plant and Insect Hosts

“…In fact, the differential polysaccharide composition of pit membranes has been suggested to account for the relative differences in susceptibility of different grape varieties to invasion by X. fastidiosa, with homogalacturans and xyloglucans playing an important role in the susceptibility of various varieties to infection (Sun et al 2011). Further evidence for the role of pectin as a constituent of a physical barrier for intercellular movement of X. fastidiosa is provided by the observation that grape expressing a polygalacturonase-inhibiting protein from pear exhibited higher resistance to symptom development after inoculation with this pathogen than the parental line (Agüero et al 2005). It is also important to note that rpfF mutants of X. fastidiosa that do not produce diffusible signaling factor (DSF) express pglA and genes encoding certain other extracellular enzymes at a higher level than that of the wild-type strain (Chatterjee et al 2008b;Wang et al 2012).…”

“…Recently, the introduction of a construct carrying such a peptide into transgenic grapevines, allowing its specific expression into the xylem of plants, was efficient protecting grapes against the development of Pierce's disease (Dandekar et al 2012). Other concepts leading to the constitutive expression of exogenous proteins in transgenic plants include the expression of polygalacturonase-inhibiting proteins (PGIPs) that inhibit X. fastidiosa polygalacturonase (pglA) responsible for the systemic movement of X. fastidiosa in plants (Agüero et al 2005). Strategies may also emerge from research on the identification of xylem compounds produced during plant exposure to low temperatures (Wilhelm et al 2011;Meyer and Kirkpatrick 2011).…”

An engineered innate immune defense protects grapevines from Pierce disease

“…PGIP, an innate defense protein, is secreted to the apoplast of plants and blocks cleavage of the pectin component of the middle lamella between plant cells by bacterial and fungal polygalactouranases (25). In a previous study (26), we demonstrated that the expression of PGIP in grapevines resulted in the secretion of PGIP first to the apoplast and then to the xylem. The chimeric genes (optimized for plant codon use) were cloned into a plant vector to create the two binary plasmids pDA05.0525 with PGIP signal peptide PGIPsp and pDU04.6105 with HNEsp (Fig.…”

Generation of transgenic sugar beet (Beta vulgarism L.) overexpressing the polygalacturonase inhibiting protein 1 of Phaseolus vulgaris (PvPGIP1) through Agrobacterium-mediated transformation

“…One of the strategies used by plants to limit the degradation of the cell wall polysaccharides by fungal CWDEs is the production of proteinaceous inhibitors (D'Ovidio et al, 2004;Ferrari et al, 2012). Against fungal, microbial, and insect PGs, plants produce cell wall-associated polygalacturonaseinhibiting proteins (PGIPs) (Spadoni et al, 2006) The overexpression of PGIPs improves the resistance to fungal and bacterial necrotrophs in different plants (Aguero et al, 2005;Ferrari et al, 2012). PGIPs found in the cell wall of many plants counteract fungal PGs by forming specific complexes with them (Torki et al, 2000;De Lorenzo et al, 2001;Protsenko et al, 2010;Benedetti et al, 2011), blocking their activity and favoring the accumulation of partially digested fragments of polygalacturonic acid, the oligogalacturonides, that induce the plant defense responses (Cervone et al, 1990;De Lorenzo et al, 2001;Martin et al, 2003).…”

“…For example, PvPGIP1 is able to recognize and inhibit several PGs produced by different phytopathogenic fungi such as Aspergillus niger, Colletothricum acutatum, Staenocarpella maydis, and Botrytis cinerea (D'Ovidio et al, 2004). Numerous studies have shown that PGIP reduces the susceptibility to fungal attack in different transgenic plants like tobacco, pear, apple, tomato, Arabidopsis, wheat, and grapevine (Benito et al, 1998;Powell et al, 2000;Atkinson et al, 2002;Faize et al, 2003;Ferrari et al, 2003;Tamura et al, 2004;Aguero et al, 2005;Manfredini et al, 2005;Joubert et al, 2006Joubert et al, , 2007Kortekamp, 2006;Oelofse et al, 2006;Gregori et al, 2008;Janni et al, 2008). In this study, the Pgip1 gene of P. vulgaris (Pvpgip1), encoding one of the PG inhibitors thus far characterized (De Lorenzo et al, 2001;Benedetti et al, 2011), was transformed into sugar beet using an Agrobacterium-mediated genetic transformation.…”