INVESTIGADORES
BRAVO ALMONACID Fernando Felix
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
“Supression of enzymatic browning in potato plants by RNA interference
Autor/es:
LLORENTE BE, BRAVO ALMONACID FF, TORRES HN, FLAWIÁ MM, ALONSO GD.
Lugar:
Pinamar, Argentina
Reunión:
Congreso; XLI Reunión Anual de la Sociedad Argentina de Investigaciones Bioquímicas.; 2005
Resumen:
Damage caused by post-harvest enzymatic browning is one of the main economic problems to potato producers and Food Industry. We have developed different transgenic potato plants which present Polyphenol oxidase (PPO) activity inhibition by using RNA interference technology. In order to silence PPO expression, sense and antisense gene fragments of 400 bp from the 5´ region of the potato pot32 gene and an 840 bp spliceable spacer were ligated into a binary vector pZP200-HYG under the control of a constitutive promoter to generate a recombinant plasmid pJAPI. This plasmid was subsequently transformed into potato (Solanum tuberosum) var. spunta via Agrobacterium tumefaciens mediated tuber transformation. Selection with hygromycine and PCR detection assays yielded over 30 different transgenic lines. RNA expression, PPO activity and phenotype were initially analyzed in 4 transgenic lines. We show that PPO mRNA levels and PPO activity correlate with the reduction in enzymatic browning in these lines and no detrimental side effects have been detected so far. This suppression which eliminates sensitivity to bruising could prevent huge losses occurring during the harvest (over 20%) and help avoid the use of various additives during the processing of potato derived commercial products.