Summary
Some plant pathogens produce toxins which cause disease in infected plants. One of the pathogenic toxins, tabtoxin, is produced by Pseudomonas syringae pv. tabaci, which causes wildfire of tobacco. A tabtoxin resistance gene (ttr) coding for an acetyltransferase isolated from Pseudomonas syringae pv. tabaci was fused to the 35S promoter of the cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) to construct a chimeric gene for introduction into tobacco cells by Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. The transgenic tobacco plants showed high specific-expression of the ttr gene and no chlorotic symptoms caused by tabtoxin treatment or with infection by Pseudomonas syringae pv. tabaci. These results demonstrate a successful approach to obtain disease-resistant plants by detoxification of the pathogenic toxins which play an important role in pathogenesis.
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Communicated by J. Schell
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Anzai, H., Yoneyama, K. & Yamaguchi, I. Transgenic tobacco resistant to a bacterial disease by the detoxification of a pathogenic toxin. Mol Gen Genet 219, 492–494 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00259626
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00259626