Transgenic melons expressing antifungal protein (AFP3) conferred resistance against Rhizoctonia solani

• Published in: Plant pathology bulletin Vol. 17; no. 1; p. 93
• Main Authors: Wang, P-T, Chang, Y-L, Chiang, C-H, Chen, Y-T, Shaw, S-F, Yeh, S-D, Shih, H-D, Yu, T-A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.03.2008
• Subjects: Cucumis melo; Rhizoctonia solani
• ISSN: 1021-9544

Melon (Cucumis melo L.) is one of the economically important crops on the tropics and subtropics. Fungal disease is often causing serious economy loss of melon, hence fungicides are generally used to protect against melon diseases. In consideration of the harmful and dangerous effects to the environment ecosystem, the transgenic approach is a better and more convenient way to control the fungal diseases. The anti-fungal protein gene constructions, Bo-AFP3-HB-GFP and Cp-AFP3-HB-GFP, were kindly supplied by Dr. Shaw, Jei -Fu in Academia Sinica. Transgenic melon lines carrying Bo-AFP3-HB-GFP or Cp-AFP3-HB-GFP genes were previously generated in our laboratory. In this study, we evaluated the resistance of inde -pendent transgenic lines against Rhizoctonia solani under greenhouse condition, and also confirmed their transgene insertion by genomic DNA PCR and Southern blotting. Line B28, line C14 and line C25 exhibited higher resistance against to R. solani and express higher transcript levels of afp3 analyzed by RT-PCR. Photomicrographs under fluorescence microscopy showing GFP proteins was apparently expressing in the higher resistant transgenic leaves.