Inhibition of cell death as an approach for development of transgenic resistance against Fusarium wilt disease

Abstract

Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense (Foc) is one of the major threats to dessert banana (Musa spp.) production. In Uganda, 'Sukali Ndiizi' is one of the most popular dessert banana cultivars and it is highly susceptible to Fusarium wilt. Development of resistant cultivars through transgenic approaches has shown to offer one of the most effective control options for most diseases. The transgenic approaches for providing plant disease resistance have mainly been through either enzymatic destruction of pathogen structures, neutralization of pathogen and its products or production of metabolites that eventually kill the pathogen. However in recent years, methods that prevent cell death of host plant after infection especially for necrotrophic pathogens like F. oxysporum have registered success in providing resistance in several crops. We investigated whether the transgenic expression of a programmed cell death inhibition gene in Sukali Ndiizi could be used to confer Fusarium resistance to Foc race 1. Embryogenic cell suspensions of cv. 'Sukali Ndiizi, were stably transformed with a synthetic, plant-codon optimise mCed-9 gene. Twenty-eight independently transformed plant lines were regenerated. The lines were inoculated with Foc race 1 and observed for 13 weeks in small-plant glasshouse. Three transgenic lines showed significantly lower internal and external disease symptoms than the wild-type susceptible 'Sukali Ndiizi' banana plants used as controls. This is the first report from Africa on the generation of Fusarium wilt tolerant transgenic 'Sukali Ndiizi', a very popular but rapidly diminishing African dessert banana.

Precision genetics tools for genetic improvement of banana

“…Transgenic banana engineered with rice thaumatin-like protein or PR-5 gene has shown significant resistance against Foc race 1 ( Mahdavi et al, 2012). Similarly, the overexpression of the anti-apoptosis gene in transgenic bananas showed enhanced resistance against Foc race 1 ( Magambo et al, 2016;Paul et al, 2011). Additionally, RNAi silencing of targeted genes of Foc race 1 showed significant resistance in transformed events (Ghag et al, 2014).…”

Application of genetic modification and genome editing for developing climate‐smart banana

“…Transgenic banana with rice thaumatin-like protein (TLP) or PR-5 gene has shown significant resistance against Foc race 1 (Mahdavi, Sariah, & Maziah, 2012). Resistance against Foc race 1 has also been demonstrated in transgenic banana using either the anti-apoptosis-related gene or through RNAi silencing of vital genes of Foc (Ghag, Shekhawat, & Ganapathi, 2014;Magambo et al, 2016;Paul et al, 2011). Recently, overexpression of RGA2 or Ced9 gene in transgenic Cavendish banana showed significant resistance against Foc under field conditions in Australia (Dale et al, 2017).…”