Rice Harboring Four O’clock Flower Gene Resists Blast Fungus Attack

By inserting a gene coding for the anti-microbial protein Mj-AMP2 from the four o’clock flower (Mirabilis jalapa), Bishun Deo Prasad and his colleagues from University of Baroda in India have developed transgenic rice lines resistant to several plant pathogenic fungi including Magnaporthe oryzae. M. oryzae is the causal organism of the rice blast disease, considered as the most devastating disease in rice-growing regions worldwide. Strains of the fungus can also infect other crops such as barley, wheat, rye, and pearl millet.

Expression of the anti-microbial protein ranged from 0.32% to 0.38% of the total protein in the transgenic rice plants. The protein was found to reduce the growth of the blast fungus by 63% with respect to untransformed control plant, and no effect on plant phenotype was observed. Since transgene expression was not accompanied by an induction of pathogenesis-related (PR) gene expression, the scientists concluded that Mj-AMP2 itself is directly active against the pathogen.

The paper published by Plant Science is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.plantsci.2008.05.015