Biotech Updates

Dahlia Gene Keeps Rice Pathogenic Fungi Out

September 5, 2008

Plants possess an impressive arsenal of genes that are involved in their defense against pathogens. These genes encode proteins, such as defensins, that function in pathogen recognition, signal transduction and the activation of defense-associated responses. Sanjay Jha and colleagues from the University Baroda, India, investigate how “Expression of Dm-AMP1 in rice confers resistance to Magnaporthe oryzae and Rhizoctonia solani”. Their work appears in the current issue of the journal Transgenic Research.

The team over-expressed the antifungal plant defensin from Dahlia merckii in rice using Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. They observed that constitutive expression of Dm-AMP1 suppresses the growth of rice blast fungus and sheath blight by 84% and 72%, respectively. The recombinant protein was found to be specifically expressed in the apoplastic region (diffusional spaces between cells) of plant tissues. Since transgene expression was not accompanied by induction of pathogenesis-related gene expression, the researchers concluded that Dm-AMP1 directly inhibits M. oryzae and R. solani.

Subscribers to the journal can download the complete article through http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11248-008-9196-1