Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
niger.
They found that stable integration and expression of
GOX
gene in
the transgenic (T0-T2) tobacco lines enhanced their cold tolerance level
signifi cantly. The three homozygous transgenic lines had chilling protection
more prominent at 12h exposure to -1°C. In addition, most transgenic lines
recovered within a week when returned to normal culture conditions after
-1°C-12 h cold stress compared to the control plants displayed symptoms
of chilling injuries They concluded that the transgenic expression of
GOX
may be deployed to improve resistance to phytopathogens along with cold
tolerance in higher plants.
It is now very clear that management of fungal pathogens of plants is
possible with incorporation of antifungal genes of fungal origin. Among
the most utilized fungal species are
Trichoderma
and
Aspergillus
species.
The genes from fungal origin have particular advantages over the similar
constitutive genes of plant origin as over expression of plant constitutive
genes are normally seen to have adverse effect on the plant's growth and
development. More research is necessary to identify more antifungal genes
from other fungal species also for their potential incorporation in plants
to develop transgenics in future. Since, transgenic plants using genes from
fungal origin have not seen to have any potential threat to the environment
it may be the pathogenicity plant protectionists and biotechnologies are
looking forward.
CONCLUSIONS
Genes of plant origin have shown tremendous potentiality to resist fungal
pathogen attack through their direct or indirect antimicrobial activities.
However, most of such genes are not able to be utilized in management
of fungal pathogens as their overexpression which is required to bring
down the pathogenicity level leads to physiological and morphological
abnormalities in the plants. In contrast similar genes from fungal origin
have not shown such abnormalities when they were used to develop
transgenic crop plants. Therefore genes from fungal origin should be
explored more thoroughly and subsequently be used for developing
transgenic plants with higher degree of resistance towards a fungal
pathogen. Since the target genes used will be of fungal origin there is lesser
possibilities of breaking down of the resistance and such transgenic crops
could be developed within a short time compared to the conventional
breeding programme that requires a signifi cant amount of time.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
BKS and HBS are grateful to Department of Biotechnology, New Delhi
for fi nancial assistance.
