Soybean beta-1,3-endoglucanase represents a model system for studies on early plant responses 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 beta-1,3-endoglucanase cDNA via Agrobacterium delivery system. The transfer of the gene into potato genome was confirmed...

The potato tuber moth, Phthorimaea operculella (Zeller), in tropical and subtropical countries, is the most destructive pest of potato, Solanum tuberosum L. The larvae attack foliage and tubers in the field and in storage. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a Bt-cry5 transgene to control the potato tuber moth in tuber tissues. Tuber bioassays using stored (11-12 mo old) a...

Plants respond to pest attack, among other mechanisms, by producing specific proteins with insecticidal properties. Proteins toxic effects on insects have also been discovered in many organisms, especially fungi and bacteria. Due their biological function, represent an important potential the development of more environmentally friendly plant protection methods. Increasing knowledge about mode ...

The creation of artificial metabolic sinks in plants by genetic engineering of key branch points may have serious consequences for the metabolic pathways being modified. The introduction into potato of a gene encoding tryptophan decarboxylase (TDC) isolated from Catharanthus roseus drastically altered the balance of key substrate and product pools involved in the shikimate and phenylpropanoid p...

Transgenic lines of the potato cultivar White Lady expressing the trehalose-6-phosphate synthase (TPS1) gene of yeast exhibit improved drought tolerance, but grow slower and have a lower carbon fixation rate and stomatal density than the wild-type. To understand the molecular basis of this phenomenon, we have compared the transcriptomes of wild-type and TPS1-transgenic plants using the POCI mic...

Magainin peptides originally identified from Xenopus laevis have cytotoxic effects against a range of prokaryotic organisms without harmful effects on higher eukaryotes. The mechanism of cytotoxicity of the peptides is by disruption of membranes, which causes osmolysis. Magainin peptides are known to inhibit the in vitro growth of many phytopathogens including Erwinia carotovora, the causative ...

Potato has been genetically engineered for the production of commercially important ketocarotenoids including astaxanthin (3,3'-dihydroxy 4,4'-diketo-beta-carotene). To support the formation of 3-hydroxylated and 4-ketolated beta-carotene, a transgenic potato line accumulating zeaxanthin due to inactivated zeaxanthin epoxidase was co-transformed with the crtO beta-carotene ketolase gene from th...

Potato tuber is a high yielding food crop known for its high levels of starch accumulation but only negligible levels of triacylglycerol (TAG). In this study, we evaluated the potential for lipid production in potato tubers by simultaneously introducing three transgenes, including WRINKLED 1 (WRI1), DIACYLGLYCEROL ACYLTRANSFERASE 1 (DGAT1) and OLEOSIN under the transcriptional control of tuber-...

The creation of artificial metabolic sinks in plants by genetic engineering of key branch points may have serious consequences for the metabolic pathways being modified. The introduction into potato of a gene encoding tryptophan decarboxylase (TDC) isolated from Catharanthus roseus drastically altered the balance of key substrate and product pools involved in the shikimate and phenylpropanoid p...