Overexpression of Snakin-1 in Solanum tuberosum transformed plants lead to significant changes in the level of protection against Rhizoctonia solani and Erwinia carotovora.

ALMASIA, NATALIA INÉS; HOPP, H. ESTEBAN; VAZQUEZ-ROVERE, CECILIA

Madison, Wisconsin, USA.

Workshop; 3nd SOLANACEAE GENOME WORKSHOP; 2006

SNAKIN-1 gene encodes for a peptide with in-vitro antimicrobial properties. The aim of this work was to deep into the knowledge of the in-vivo role of the snakin-1 gene. We produce transgenic potato plants overexpressing Solanum chacoense snakin-1 gene and another set of plants able to trigger specific post-transcriptional gene silencing against the Solanum tuberosum cv Kennebec endogenous gene. These plants were characterized at molecular level by PCR, Southern blot, RT-PCR and Northen blots. Selected lines were challenged with Rhizoctonia solani and high level of protection was shown in the plants that constitutive overexpressed snakin-1 gene with respect to the non-transformed plants. Antisense lines displayed the similar behavior or were even more susceptible than control plants. To asses the spectrum of protection we challenged the selected plants against Erwinia caratovora. Transgenic lines displaying the highest fungal resistance levels also showed the highest bacterial resistance phenotypes. These results suggest that snakin-1 gene is an important in-vivo antifungal and antibacterial defense component in potato plants and thus a candidate gene potentially useful to engineer resistance of plants to relevant pathogens.