title: Enhanced resistance to stripe rust disease in transgenic wheat expressing the rice chitinase gene RC24.
abstract: Stripe rust is a devastating fungal disease of wheat worldwide which is primarily caused by Puccinia striiformis f. sp tritici. Transgenic wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) expressing rice class chitinase gene RC24 were developed by particle bombardment of immature embryos and tested for resistance to Puccinia striiformis f.sp tritici. under greenhouse and field conditions. Putative transformants were selected on kanamycin-containing media. Polymease chain reaction indicated that RC24 was transferred into 17 transformants obtained from bombardment of 1,684 immature embryos. Integration of RC24 was confirmed by Southern blot with a RC24-labeled probe and expression of RC24 was verified by RT-PCR. Nine transgenic T1 lines exhibited enhanced resistance to stripe rust infection with lines XN8 and BF4 showing the highest level of resistance. Southern blot hybridization confirmed the stable inheritance of RC24 in transgenic T1 plants. Resistance to stripe rust in transgenic T2 and T3 XN8 and BF4 plants was confirmed over two consecutive years in the field. Increased yield (27-36 %) was recorded for transgenic T2 and T3 XN8 and BF4 plants compared to controls. These results suggest that rice class I chitinase RC24 can be used to engineer stripe rust resistance in wheat.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Resource Biology and Biotechnology in Western China (Ministry of Education), Institute of Life Science, Northwest University, Xi'an, 710069, Shaanxi, People's Republic of China, xuanhaung@nwu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xuan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Zhen
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Du
authors.forename: Chen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Lan
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Ziqin
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Xu
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001487:Basidiomycota; D015139:Blotting, Southern; D002681:China; D002688:Chitinases / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D017931:DNA Primers / Q000235:genetics; D060467:Disease Resistance / Q000235:genetics*; D018014:Gene Transfer Techniques; D012275:Oryza / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics; D010935:Plant Diseases / Q000235:genetics*; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D014908:Triticum / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D002688:Chitinases