Enhanced resistance to blast fungus in rice (Oryza sativa L.) by expressing the ribosome-inactivating protein α-momorcharin.
Rice blast caused by Magnaporthe grisea is one of the three major diseases that seriously affect the rice production. Alpha-momorcharin (α-MC), a ribosome-inactivating protein (RIP) isolated from Momordica charantia seeds, has antifungal effects in vitro. In this study, the α-MC gene was constitutively expressed under the control of the 2×35S promoter in transgenic rice (Oryza sativa L.) using an Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated method. The nine transgenic plants were obtained and confirmed by PCR and RT-PCR, and the four (B2, B4, B7 and B9) of them whose copy numbers were 1, 2, 3 and 3, respectively, were shown to express the α-MC protein by Western blot. The molecular weight of α-MC in transgenic plants was approximately 38 kDa larger than the purified α-MC protein (28 kDa) in vitro. When the confirmed T1 generations were inoculated with a suspension of M. grisea spores for ten days, the lesions on leaves of transgenic plants were much lesser than those found on wild type (WT). According to the criteria of International Rice Research Institute standard, the mean values for morbidity and disease index numbers were 29.8% and 14.9%, respectively, which were lower than for WT. It is unclear whether RIPs could impact plant fitness and however our results suggest that the α-MC protein is an effective antifungal protein preventing rice blast in transgenic rice.
State Key Laboratory of Hybrid Rice, Department of Genetics, College of Life Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, Hubei Province, People's Republic of China.
Qian
Q
Qian
State Key Laboratory of Hybrid Rice, Department of Genetics, College of Life Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, Hubei Province, People's Republic of China.
Lin
L
Huang
State Key Laboratory of Hybrid Rice, Department of Genetics, College of Life Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, Hubei Province, People's Republic of China.
Rong
R
Yi
State Key Laboratory of Hybrid Rice, Department of Genetics, College of Life Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, Hubei Province, People's Republic of China.
Shuzhen
S
Wang
State Key Laboratory of Hybrid Rice, Department of Genetics, College of Life Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, Hubei Province, People's Republic of China. Electronic address: yiding@whu.edu.cn.
Yi
Y
Ding
D060467:Disease Resistance; D054884:Host-Pathogen Interactions; D020082:Magnaporthe / Q000502:physiology*; D012275:Oryza / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000382:microbiology*; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified; D054788:Ribosome Inactivating Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*
C039582:MMC protein, Momordica charantia; D054788:Ribosome Inactivating Proteins
Alpha-momorcharin; Ribosome-inactivating proteins; Rice; Rice blast fungus