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Tolerance to the fungal pathogen Rhizoctonia solani AG4 of transgenic tobacco expressing the maize ribosome-inactivating protein b-32

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Abstract

The maize b-32 protein is a functional ribosome-inactivating protein (RIP), inhibiting in vitro translation in the cell-free reticulocyte-derived system and having specific N-glycosidase activity on 28S rRNA. Previous results indicated that opaque-2 (o2) mutant kernels, lacking b-32, show an increased susceptibility to fungal attack and insect feeding and that ectopic expression in plants of a barley and a pokeweed RIP leads to increased tolerance to fungal and viral infection. This prompted us to test whether b-32 might functi on as a protectant against pathogens. The b32.66 cDNA clone under the control of the potato wun1 gene promoter was introduced into tobacco by Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation. Out of 23 kanamycin resistant regenerated shoots, 16 contained a PCR fragment of the corrrect size spanning the boundary between the promoter used and the coding region of the b-32 gene. Eight independently transformed tobacco lines were randomly chosen for protein analysis: all of them expressed b-32 protein. The data presented indicate that transgenic tobacco plants expressing b-32 show an increased tolerance against infection by the soil-borne fungal pathogen Rhizoctonia solani Kuhn

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Istituto Sperimentale per la Cerealicoltura, Sezione di Bergamo, Via Stezzano 24, 24100, Bergamo, Italy

    MASSIMO MADDALONI, FABIO FORLANI, VIRGILIO BALMAS, GIOVANNA DONINI, LAURENCE STASSE, LUCIANA CORAZZA & MARIO MOTTO

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  1. MASSIMO MADDALONI
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  2. FABIO FORLANI
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  3. VIRGILIO BALMAS
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  4. GIOVANNA DONINI
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  5. LAURENCE STASSE
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  6. LUCIANA CORAZZA
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  7. MARIO MOTTO
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MADDALONI, M., FORLANI, F., BALMAS, V. et al. Tolerance to the fungal pathogen Rhizoctonia solani AG4 of transgenic tobacco expressing the maize ribosome-inactivating protein b-32. Transgenic Res 6, 393–402 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1018435417740

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