Michael S. Voegtline et al. (2007) International Worm Meeting "Induced resistance against Meloidogyne incognita infection and egg production via transfection of modified Bacillus thurengiensis (Bt) crystal toxin genes and expression in tomato hairy roots."

Michael S. Voegtline, Xiang-qian Li, Raffi V. Aroian, Senait Bekele, Anderson Tan

[International Worm Meeting, 2007]

To confer resistance against the root gall nematode Meloidogyne incognita, a study was performed to introduce Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) crystal protein toxin genes into tomato plant (Lycopersicon esculentum var. Rutgers select) hairy roots. Crystal toxin gene sequences were altered to allow plant expression and in some cases also included unique intron sequences to aid in protein expression. Genes were inserted into the pBluscript in concert with a double 35S plant promoter and kanamycin resistance. The vector was used to transform the plant pathogenic bacterium Agrobacterium rhizogenes. The transformed Agrobacterium was used to induce the toxin genes into plants by co-cultivation with tomato cotyledons. Hairy root lines were selected via kanamycin resistance and once established, root extracts were tested for relative expression of crystal toxin by western blot analysis using a polyclonal detection sera specific for each toxin. Induced resistance against the root gall nematode was examined by hairy root challenge against a load of J2 stage parasitic nematodes. Subsequent enumeration of total egg masses (EM), total sites of infection (INF) and total calculated eggs (TE) per root plate were used to determine resistance against nematode infections. Results of these studies will be discussed. Data suggests that some Bt crystal proteins have excellent potential to control plant parasitic nematode (PPN) infections in transgenic plants.