Biologia Plantarum (Dec 2012)

Virus resistance obtained in transgenic tobacco and rice by RNA interference using promoters with distinct activity

  • C. Zhang,
  • Y. Song,
  • F. Jiang,
  • G. Li,
  • Y. Jiang,
  • C. Zhu,
  • F. Wen

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10535-012-0117-z
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 56, no. 4
pp. 742 – 748

Abstract

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To induce virus resistance in tobacco and rice we constructed hairpin RNA expression system harbouring inverted repeat fragments of coat protein cDNA of Potato virus Y (PVY) or Rice stripe virus (RSV). These structures were driven by three promoters [cauliflower mosaic virus 35S (CaMV 35S), polyubiqutin gene of maize (Ubi), and Pharbitis nil leucine zipper gene (PNZIP)] which have different tissue-specific activity. PVY resistance ratios were 65.18, 24.33 and 83.54 % in transgenic tobacco plants harboring p35S-PVY, pUbi-PVY and pPNZIP-PVY. RSV resistance was 16.21, 28.61 and 29.33 % in transgenic rice plants harboring p35S-RSV, pUbi-RSV and pPNZIP-RSV. Northern blotting and GUS assay demonstrated that virus resistance levels were related to promoter activity. Therefore, choice of the more effective and tissue-specific promoter to reinforce transcription of hpRNAs will favour the cultivation of highly virusresistant transgenic plants.

Keywords