ISHS Acta Horticulturae 336: II International Symposium on In Vitro Culture and Horticultural Breeding
PERSPECTIVES ON CONTROLLING POTATO SOFT ROT WITH FOREIGN GENES FOR ANTIBACTERIAL COMPOUNDS. |
| Authors: | S.L. Sinden, R.S. Kobayashi, R.O. Nordeen, L.D. Owens |
| Keywords: | Erwinia carotovora, lysozyme, cecropin, protoplasts |
| Abstract:
Researchers worldwide are attempting to confer bacterial resistance to crop plants by inserting genes for antibacterial polypeptides or proteins. The feasibility of conferring soft rot (Erwinia carotovora) resistance to potato tubers by inserting available genes for cecropin or lysozyme was investigated. Cecropin B and chicken lysozyme were lethal to the three E. carotovora subspp. that cause tuber soft rot at 0.2 to 4 μg·ml-1. Tuber-disk infiltration experiments indicated that lysozyme expression levels z 90μg.g-1 fresh weight in tubers from transgenic plants might confer high resistance. Infiltrated cecropin was less effective in preventing infection and tuber-disk maceration. Cecropin was more toxic to potato protoplasts suggesting that, of these two antibacterial compounds, lysozyme might be more efficient in conferring resistance to soft rot. | |
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