Production of Antimicrobial Defensin in Nicotiana benthamiana with a Potato Virus X Vector

A recombinant plasmid, pTXS.TH, was constructed to express the gene-encoding wasabi (Wasabia japonica) defensin with the potato virus X (PVX) vector. pTXS.TH allows the expression of defensin in the host Nicotiana benthamiana, and the defensin protein WT1 can be purified from virus-infected leaves b...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Hiromasa Saitoh, Akinori Kiba, Masahiro Nishihara, Saburo Yamamura, Kazumi Suzuki, Ryohei Terauchi
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: The American Phytopathological Society 2001-02-01
Series:Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions
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Online Access:https://apsjournals.apsnet.org/doi/10.1094/MPMI.2001.14.2.111
Description
Summary:A recombinant plasmid, pTXS.TH, was constructed to express the gene-encoding wasabi (Wasabia japonica) defensin with the potato virus X (PVX) vector. pTXS.TH allows the expression of defensin in the host Nicotiana benthamiana, and the defensin protein WT1 can be purified from virus-infected leaves by heat treatment and affinity chromatography. WT1 exhibits strong antifungal activity toward the phytopathogenic fungi Magnaporthe grisea(50% inhibitory concentration [IC50] = 5 μg/ml) and Botrytis cinerea (IC50 = 20 μg/ml) but is weakly active against the phytopathogenic bacterium Pseudomonas cichorii. This virus-mediated expression system is a rapid and efficient method to produce and characterize antimicrobial proteins in plants. It is particularly useful for the study of proteins that are difficult to produce with other expression systems.
ISSN:0894-0282
1943-7706