Achieving High Expression of Cry in Green Tissues and Negligible Expression in Endosperm Simultaneously via rbcS Gene Fusion Strategy in Rice

Abstract

To allay excessive public concern about the safety of transgenic foods, and to optimize insect-resistant genes expression to delay the evolution of resistance in pests, we developed a promising strategy to fuse the GOI (gene of interest) with OsrbcS (rice small subunit of ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase) in transgenic rice, which acted as a carrier, driven by the OsrbcS native promoter to sequester its expression in green tissues. Using eYFP as a trial, we reported a high-level accumulation of eYFP in green tissue and almost none in the seed and root of the fused construct compared to the non-fused construct. After applying this fusion strategy in insect-resistant rice breeding, recombinant OsrbcS-Cry1Ab/Cry1Ac expressed rice plants conferred high resistance to leaffolders and striped stem borers, among which two single-copy lines possessed normal agronomic performance in the field. Specifically, Cry1Ab/Cry1Ac protein levels in single-copy construct transgenic lines ranged from 1.8 to 11.5 µg g−1 in the leaf, higher than the Actin I promoter-driven control, T51-1, about 1.78 µg g−1 in the leaf, but negligible (only 0.00012–0.00117 µg g−1) in endosperm by ELISA analysis. Our study provided a novel approach to creating Cry1Ab/Cry1Ac-free endosperm rice with a high level of insect-resistant protein in green tissues through the simultaneous usage of the OsrbcS promoter and OsrbcS as a fusion partner.