Increased resistance to fungal wilts in transgenic eggplant expressing alfalfa glucanase gene

Abstract

The wilt diseases caused by Verticillium dahliae and Fusarium oxysporum are the major diseases of eggplant (Solanum melongena L.). In order to generate transgenic resistance against the wilt diseases, Agrobacteriummediated gene transfer was performed to introduce alfalfa glucanase gene encoding an acidic glucanase into eggplant using neomycin phosphotransferase (npt-II) gene as a plant selection marker. The transgene integration into eggplant genome was confirmed by Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and Southern blot analysis and transgene expression by the glucanase activity and western blot analysis. The selected transgenic lines were challenged with V. dahliae and F. oxysporum under in vitro and in vivo growth conditions, and transgenic lines showed enhanced resistance against the wilt-causing fungi with a delay of 5-7 days in the disease development as compared to wild-type plants.

Structural insights into the lipid transfer mechanism of a non‐specific lipid transfer protein

“…Antifungal activity of some nsLTPs was reported earlier (Molina et al , ; Nielsen et al , ; Kristensen et al , ), but the mechanism of action remained unknown. Fusarium oxysporum infects a variety of plants including Solanum melongena , with characteristic wilt disease (Najar et al , ; Singh et al , ). It was interesting to explore whether the nsLTP could interact and permeabilize the cell membrane of the fungus.…”

Proteomic analysis provides integrated insight into mechanisms of Turnip mosaic virus long distance movement in Brassica rapa

“…PR5 proteins destroy the lipid bi-layer, creating trans-membrane pores that increase the permeability of the pathogen's PM (Vigers et al 1992). PR-2 proteins (-1,3-glucanases, Bra007315) hydrolyze -1,3-glucans which form fungal cell walls (Singh et al 2014). PR-4 (Bra001122) contains ribonuclease activity and the expression increases under pathogen invasion and causes programmed cell death (Sugawara et al 2016).…”

Recombinant Promoter (MUASCsV8CP) Driven Totiviral Killer Protein 4 (KP4) Imparts Resistance Against Fungal Pathogens in Transgenic Tobacco

“…In the current scenario, where great genetic diversity and resistant isolates of pathogens thrive in nature, production of resistant crop varieties by transgenic approach is considered one of the easiest and effective device to control recalcitrant plant pathogens ( Mundt, 2014 ). There are recent reports where in expression of transgenes in plants has conferred increased resistance against fungal pathogens, such as transgenic plants engineered with glucanase gene from alfalfa ( Singh et al, 2014 ); ERF1-V gene from Haynaldia villosa ( Xing et al, 2017 ) and PSS1 from Arabidopsis thaliana ( Wang et al, 2017 ). Likewise, this study is a nascent report of significant anti-fungal activity exerted by recombinant KP4 on two deuteromycetous foliar pathogenic fungi A. alternata and Phoma exigua var.…”