Production of transgenic potato exhibiting enhanced resistance to fungal infections and herbicide applications

Abstract

Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.), one of the most important food crops, is susceptible to a number of devastating fungal pathogens in addition to bacterial and other pathogens. Producing disease-resistant cultivars has been an effective and useful strategy to combat the attack of pathogens. Potato was transformed with Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain EHA101 harboring chitinase, (ChiC) isolated from Streptomyces griseus strain HUT 6037 and bialaphos resistance (bar) genes in a binary plasmid vector, pEKH1. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis revealed that the ChiC and bar genes are integrated into the genome of transgenic plants. Different insertion sites of the transgenes (one to six sites for ChiC and three to seven for bar) were indicated by Southern blot analysis of genomic DNA from the transgenic plants. Expression of the ChiC gene at the messenger RNA (mRNA) level was confirmed by Northern blot analysis and that of the bar gene by herbicide resistance assay. The results obviously confirmed that the ChiC and bar genes are successfully integrated and expressed into the genome, resulting in the production of bialaphos-resistant transgenic plants. Disease-resistance assay of the in vitro and greenhouse-grown transgenic plants demonstrated enhanced resistance against the fungal pathogen Alternaria solani (causal agent of early blight).

Transformation of Thionin Genes Using Chitosan Nanoparticle into Potato Plant to Be Resistant to Fungal Infection

“…Micro-tubers from mature transgenic and non-transformed potato plants, grown in vitro for about 8 weeks, were placed in a Petri dish with wet filter paper and inoculated with the spore suspension (20 µl each).After inoculation, these different organs were incubated at room temperature under 16 h light/8 h dark conditions and high humidity for a week. Pictures were taken 5 days after inoculation [36].…”

Transformation of canola by chit33 gene towards improving resistance to Sclerotinia sclerotiorum

“…Transgene silencing has also been reported in some other transgenic plants (De Buck et al 1998;Chang et al 2002;Khan et al 2008).…”

Transgenic Potato (Solanumtuberosum) Expressing Two Antifungal Thionin Genes Confer Resistance To Fusarium Spp.

“…Micro-tubers from mature transgenic and nontransgenicpotato plants, grown in vitro for about 8 weeks, were placed in a Petri dish with wet filter paper and inoculated with the spore suspension (20 µl each).After inoculation, these different organs were incubated at room temperature under 16 h light/8 h dark conditions and high humidity for a week. Pictures were taken 5 days after inoculation (this protocol was according to [27] with some modifications).…”