Abstract
The 42-kDa endochitinase (cht42) gene from the mycoparasitic fungus, Trichoderma virens, driven by CaMV 35S promoter, was introduced into rice by Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. Eight transgenic plants harboring single copies of complete T-DNA were identified by Southern blot analysis. Homozygous transgenic plants were identified for five lines in the T1 generation by Southern blot analysis. Homozygous T2 plants constitutively accumulated high levels of the cht42 transcript, showed 2.4- to 4.6-fold higher chitinase activity in total leaf extract and 1.6- to 1.8-fold higher chitinase activity in the extracellular fluid. Infection assays performed on the homozygous T2 plants with Rhizoctonia solani showed up to 62% reduction in the sheath blight disease index.
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Acknowledgments
We gratefully acknowledge Drs. Charles Kenerley and Keerti S. Rathore, Texas A and M University, Texas, USA for providing pCam1300-35S-cht42-4c, which harbors the Trichoderma virens chitinase gene. We thank Dr. Toshihiko Komari, Japan Tobacco Inc, Japan for providing pSB1. We thank Dr. K Dharmalingam for permitting us to use his instrumentation facilities. This research was supported by funds from the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India. JMS is thankful to Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), New Delhi for Fellowship.
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Shah, J.M., Raghupathy, V. & Veluthambi, K. Enhanced sheath blight resistance in transgenic rice expressing an endochitinase gene from Trichoderma virens . Biotechnol Lett 31, 239–244 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-008-9856-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-008-9856-5