Mannitol Expressing Eggplants More Resistant to Fungal Wilts
May 11, 2007| |
Previous research has demonstrated that mannitol, a type of sugar alcohol, plays an important role in alleviating abiotic stress in plants. Results of a recent study in the University of Delhi in India have also shown that the compound may also help plants deal with biotic stresses.
Researchers V. Prabhavathi, M.V. Rajam compared one-month-old seedlings of wild-type and T1 transgenic eggplants to test for resistance against fungal wilts. The researchers observed that transgenic eggplants expressing the E. coli mannitol-1-phosphate dehydrogenase (mtlD) gene has an increased resistance against the wilt diseases caused by Fusarium oxysporum, Verticillium dahliae and Rhizoctonia solani.
Prabhavathi and Rajam attribute the resistance in the transgenic eggplants to the higher mannitol accumulation. Mannitol levels on the wild type eggplants were not detected by the researchers. The results, together with previous data, suggest that mtlD gene can be used for engineering crop plants for both biotic and abiotic stress tolerance.
The paper has been accepted for publication in the journal Plant Science and can be accessed by subscribers at http://dx.doi.og/doi:10.1016/j.plantsci.2007.04.004.
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