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The chitinase gene (Bbchit1) from Beauveria bassiana enhances resistance to Cytospora chrysosperma in Populus tomentosa Carr.

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Abstract

The Chinese white poplar (Populus tomentosa Carr.) is susceptible to infection by plant diseases which severely affect its growth and substantially decrease its economic value. A chitinase gene (Bbchit1) from Beauveria bassiana was introduced into Chinese white poplar (Populus tomentosa Carr.) by Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. The T-DNA of plant transformation vector contained the β-glucuronidase reporter gene (GUS) under the control of CaMV 35S promoter and the neomycin phosphotransferase selection marker gene (NPTII) driven by the nos promoter. GUS activity was detected in most of the kanamycin-resistant plants tested. Stable integration of transgenes in the plant genome was confirmed using PCR. RT-PCR analysis showed that the Bbchit1 gene was transcribed in the transformed plants. When evaluated for resistance to poplar fungal pathogens with an in vitro assay, crude extracts from leaves and shoots of transgenic lines were inhibitory against the pathogenic fungus Cytospora chrysosperma (Pers.) Fr. Similarly, Bbchit1 overexpression enhanced disease resistance to C. chrysosperma in the transformed poplar plants, indicating that is gene is potentially useful to protect the trees against fungal diseases.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (3081576), the National Key Project for Research on Transgenic Plant (2008ZX08010-003), the Natural Science Foundation Project of CQ CSTC (CSTC, 2009BA1004, 2009BB0004) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities. The authors thank Prof. Jingjiang Hu (Northwest A&F University, Shanxi, China) for providing fungal stain C. chrysosperma (Pers.) Fr.

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  1. State Key Laboratory of Eco-Environment and Bio-Resource of Three Gorges Reservoir Region, Key Laboratory of Eco-Environments of Three Gorges Reservoir Region, Ministry of Education, School of Life Sciences, Southwest University, 1 Tiansheng Road, Beibei, Chongqing, 400715, China

    Zhichun Jia, Yimin Sun, Li Yuan, Qiaoyan Tian & Keming Luo

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  1. Zhichun Jia
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  2. Yimin Sun
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  3. Li Yuan
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  4. Qiaoyan Tian
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  5. Keming Luo
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Correspondence to Keming Luo.

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Jia, Z., Sun, Y., Yuan, L. et al. The chitinase gene (Bbchit1) from Beauveria bassiana enhances resistance to Cytospora chrysosperma in Populus tomentosa Carr. . Biotechnol Lett 32, 1325–1332 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-010-0297-6

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