Transgenic Potato Plants Expressing Soybean ß-l,3-Endoglucanase Gene Exhibit an Increased Resistance to Phytophthora infestans

Maria Borkowska, Magdalena Krzymowska, Andrzej Talarczyk, Malik F. M. Awan*, Ludmila Yakovleva**, Kazimierz Kleczkowski*** and Bernard Wielgat Department of Plant Biochemistry, Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Pawinskiego 5a, 02-106 Warsaw, Poland Z. Naturforsch. 53c, 1012-1016 (1998); received May ll/June 5, 1998 Agrobacterium tumefaciens, Phytoalexins, Phytopathogen, Solarium tuberosum. Transgenic plants Soybean ß-l,3-endoglucanase represents a model system for studies on early plant re­ sponses to infection by fungal pathogens, and it has been implicated in the release of elicitors from fungal cell walls. In the present study, potato plants were transformed with the soybean ß-l,3-endoglucanase cDNA via Agrobacterium delivery system. The transfer of the gene into potato genome was confirmed by (i) PCR amplification, (ii) Northern blot analyses, and (Hi) an increase in the activity of ß-l,3-endoglucanase in transgenic plants. The transformation resulted in an increased resistance of selected transgenic plants to infection by Phytophthora infestans, an important pathogen.