Transient expression of pgip2 and chimeric sppgip2-aaa-pgip1 genes in Nicotiana benthamiana

Abstract

Considerable progress has been made toward identifying and cloning genes involved in plant defense responses - one of the strategies to improve agricultural crops. The polygalacturonases (PGs) are among the first enzymes with different isomers produced during infections and colonization of phytopathogenic fungus in plant cell walls. Conversely, some of plant species have evolved polygalacturonase inhibitor proteins (PGIP) that specifically recognize and inhibit fungal PGs. This was exploited in order to construct a chimeric gene that contains pgip1 and pgip2 genes from Phaseolus vulgaris. For expression the fusion gene and pgip2 were transformed into tobacco by agroinfiltration method and the caplet plate assay activity of fusion protein has shown that the chimeric protein had high inhibitory activity against fungal PG enzyme. It can be used for the production of transgenic plants and planning a mutational strategy aimed to improve the recognition of fusion protein properties for inhibition of different PGs at the same time.

Keywords

• : polygalacturonases (pgs)
• polygalacturonase inhibitor proteins (pgip)
• chimeric proteion