| Summary: | Verticillium wilt, a soilborne disease caused by <i>Verticillium dahliae</i> (<i>V. dahliae</i>), can severely affect the yields of Solanaceae crops. In a previous study, it was observed in <i>Solanum torvum</i> (<i>S. torvum</i>) that protein phosphatase 5 (PP5) was induced by <i>V. dahliae</i> infection. To elucidate the function of PP5 more clearly, this study cloned an <i>StPP5</i> cDNA from <i>S. torvum</i> by PCR. The cDNA contained an ORF of 1458 bp long encoding a putative protein of 485 amino acid residues with a predicted molecular mass of 54.63 kDa and a theoretical isoelectric point of 5.66. StPP5 protein contained a conserved PP domain and showed high similarity to other homologous members of the PP5 family from various plant species. The expression of <i>StPP5</i> gene was upregulated after <i>V.</i> infection and reached its maximum value at 24 h in leaves. In order to clarify the role of <i>StPP5</i>, four transgenic tobacco plants expressing <i>StPP5</i> were generated through <i>Agrobacterium</i>-mediated transformation and identified by PCR. In vitro culture assay showed that the growth of <i>V. dahliae</i> in PDA medium containing proteins extracted from the leaves of transgenic tobacco line P6 was inhibited, whose inhibition rate was 55.1%, higher than the non-transgenic control. These results indicated that StPP5 might be involved in plant defense against <i>V. dahliae</i> infection.
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