Open AccessEnhanced Resistance to Seed-Transmitted Bacterial Diseases in Transgenic Rice Plants Overproducing an Oat Cell-Wall-Bound Thionin
Author(s) -
Tsuruji Iwai,
Hisatoshi Kaku,
Ryoso Honkura,
Shigeo Nakamura,
Hirokazu Ochiai,
Toyokazu Sasaki,
Yuko Ohashi
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
molecular plant-microbe interactions
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.565
H-Index - 153
eISSN - 1943-7706
pISSN - 0894-0282
DOI - 10.1094/mpmi.2002.15.6.515
Subject(s) - biology , coleoptile , seedling , bacteria , genetically modified rice , germination , botany , burkholderia , microbiology and biotechnology , genetically modified crops , gene , transgene , biochemistry , genetics
Bacterial attack is a serious agricultural problem for growth of rice seedlings in the nursery and field. The thionins purified from seed and etiolated seedlings of barley are known to have antimicrobial activity against necrotrophic pathogens; however, we found that no endogenous rice thionin genes alone are enough for resistance to two major seed-transmitted phytopathogenic bacteria, Burkholderia plantarii and B. glumae, although rice thionin genes constitutively expressed in coleoptile, the target organ of the bacteria. Thus, we isolated thionin genes from oat, one of which was overexpressed in rice. When wild-type rice seed were germinated with these bacteria, all seedlings were wilted with severe blight. In the seedling infected with B. plantarii, bacterial staining was intensively marked around stomata and intercellular spaces. However, transgenic rice seedlings accumulating a high level of oat thionin in cell walls grew almost normally with bacterial staining only on the surface of stomata. These results indicate that the oat thionin effectively works in rice plants against bacterial attack.