Overexpression of thaumatin-like protein in transgenic tomato plants confers enhanced resistance to Alternaria solani

Abstract

A cDNA encoding thaumatin-like protein (TLP) from rice was cloned into the binary vector pMON410 under the control of the CaMV 35S promoter for Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of tomato. All putative transformants were tested for the integration and expression of the chimeric gene by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for hygromycin resistance gene (hph) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for TLP respectively. Constitutive, high-level expression of TLP was observed in transgenic plants. The transgenic lines exhibited increased resistance to Alternaria solani, the early blight pathogen compared to non-transgenic tomato plants.

Keywords:

• Disease resistance
• Lycopersicon esculentum
• pathogenesis-related proteins
• thaumatin-like protein
• transgenic plants

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi, India.