Transgenic tobacco and peanut plants expressing a mustard defensin show resistance to fungal pathogens

• Published in: Plant cell reports Vol. 27; no. 11; pp. 1777 - 1786
• Main Authors: Swathi Anuradha, T, Divya, K, Jami, S. K, Kirti, P. B
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Berlin/Heidelberg : Springer-Verlag 01.11.2008; Springer-Verlag; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Amino Acid Sequence; Amino acids; Arachis - genetics; Arachis - immunology; Arachis - microbiology; Arachis hypogaea; Base Sequence; Biological and medical sciences; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biotechnology; Biotic and Abiotic Stress; Blotting, Southern; Cell Biology; Cercospora arachidicola; Defensins - chemistry; Defensins - genetics; Disease resistance; DNA Primers; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Fusarium - pathogenicity; Fusarium moniliforme; Life Sciences; Molecular Sequence Data; Nicotiana - genetics; Nicotiana - immunology; Nicotiana - microbiology; Pathogens; Peanuts; Peptides; Phytophthora - pathogenicity; Phytophthora parasitica; Plant Biochemistry; Plant Sciences; Plants, Genetically Modified - genetics; Plants, Genetically Modified - immunology; Plants, Genetically Modified - microbiology; Raphanus sativus; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; Tobacco; Transgenic plants; Transgenic tobacco; Leaf spot disease; Mustard defensin; Transgenic peanut; pv; Stramenopila; Vegetals; Disease; Mycosis; Arachis hypogaea; Phytophthora nicotianae; Phytophthora parasitica pv. nicotianae, Leaf spot disease; Plant leaf; Nicotiana tabacum; Oomycota; Infection; Fungi; Resistance; Fusarium verticillioides; Leguminosae; Dicotyledones; Angiospermae; Spermatophyta; Transgenic plant; Fungi Imperfecti; Solanaceae; Defensin; Mustard defensin, Transgenic tobacco; Transgenic peanut, Fusarium moniliforme
• ISSN: 0721-7714; 1432-203X
• DOI: 10.1007/s00299-008-0596-8

Defensins are small positively charged, antimicrobial peptides (~5 kDa in size) and some of them exhibit potent antifungal activity. We have cloned the complete cDNA containing an ORF of 243 bp of a defensin of mustard. The deduced amino acid sequence of the peptide showed more than 90% identity to the amino acid sequence of the well-characterized defensins, RsAFP-1 and RsAFP-2 of Raphanus sativus. We have generated and characterized transgenic tobacco and peanut plants constitutively expressing the mustard defensin. Transgenic tobacco plants were resistant to the fungal pathogens, Fusarium moniliforme and Phytophthora parasitica pv. nicotianae. Transgenic peanut plants showed enhanced resistance against the pathogens, Pheaoisariopsis personata and Cercospora arachidicola, which jointly cause serious late leaf spot disease. These observations indicate that the mustard defensin gene can be deployed for deriving fungal disease resistance in transgenic crops.