Transgenic Rice Resistant to Rice Blast and Sheath Blight

A group of scientists from the University of Bagoda in India has developed transgenic rice varieties resistant to the rice blast and sheath blight, devastating fungal diseases that affect rice productivity worldwide. The scientists introduced the gene Dm-AMP1 coding for an anti-fungal defensin from dahlia. Expression levels of Dm-AMP1 ranged from 0.43% to 0.57% of total soluble protein in transgenic plants. Constitutive expression of the transgene suppresses the growth of the rice blast and sheath blight causal organisms by 84% and 72%, respectively. The recombinant protein was found to be specifically expressed in the apoplastic region (diffusional spaces between cells) of the plant tissues where they bind to interact with the fungal membrane leading to membrane destabilization, and ultimately to reduced proliferation of the fungal pathogen.

Subscribers can read the paper published by the journal Transgenic Research at http://www.springerlink.com/content/g1112022l627mk35/fulltext.pdf Non subscribers can read the abstract at http://www.springerlink.com/content/g1112022l627mk35/?p=007281c8d6f744b69ae1cd86a3c90e0d&pi=0