Constitutive expression of a novel antimicrobial protein, Hcm1, confers resistance to both Verticillium and Fusarium wilts in cotton.

ABSTRACT: Fusarium and Verticillium wilts, two of the most important diseases in cotton, pose serious threats to cotton production. Here we introduced a novel antimicrobial protein Hcm1, which comprised harpin protein from Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzicola (Xoc), and the chimeric protein, cecropin A-melittin, into cotton. The transgenic cotton lines with stable Hcm1 expression showed a higher resistance to Verticillium and Fusarium wilts both in greenhouse and field trials compared to controls. Hcm1 enabled the transgenic cotton to produced a microscopic hypersensitive response (micro-HR), reactive oxygen species (ROS) burst, and caused the activation of pathogenesis-related (PR) genes in response to biotic stress, indicating that the transgenic cotton was in a primed state and ready to protect the h

SUBMITTER: Zhang Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4746735 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature