Authors: YuanLi Chan Venkatesh Prasad Sanjaya Kuei Hung Chen Po Chang Liu MingTsair Chan ChiuPing Cheng
Publish Date: 2005/01/19
Volume: 221, Issue: 3, Pages: 386-393
Abstract
Tomato is one of the most important crop plants however attacks by pathogens can cause serious losses in production In this report we explore the potential of using the Arabidopsis thionin Thi21 gene to genetically engineer enhanced resistance to multiple diseases in tomato Potential thionin toxicity in fruits was negated by the use of a fruitinactive promoter to drive the Thi21 gene In transgenic lines containing RB7/Thi21 constitutive Thi21 expression was detected in roots and incidentally in leaves but not in fruits Disease assays revealed that the transgenic lines that were tested conferred significant levels of enhanced resistance to bacterial wilt BW and Fusarium wilt FW Further studies indicated that BW disease progression in transgenic lines was delayed by a systemic suppression of bacterial multiplication By adopting a safe genetic engineering strategy the present investigation is another step forward demonstrating thionin practicality in crop protectionWe are grateful to The Institute of Molecular Biology for providing experimental equipments and facility and AVRDC—The World Vegetable Center for their technical assistance We also thank Dr Kenrick Deen for his critical review of this manuscript This work was supported by a grant from Academia Sinica and grant NSC922317B001037 from the National Science Council of the Republic of China This work was carried out in compliance with the current laws governing genetic experimentation in Taiwan the Republic of China YuanLi Chan and Venkatesh Prasad contributed equally to this work ChiuPing Cheng and MingTsair Chan also contributed equally to this work
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