• Plant Biotechnology Reports
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.301-308
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• 2011

This study tested the relative and combined efficacy of ShPx2 and ShPAL transgenes by comparing Nicotiana tabacum hybrids with enhanced levels of $_L$-phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL) activity and cationic peroxidase (Prx) activity with transgenic parental lines that overexpress either transgene. The PAL/Prx hybrids expressed both transgenes driven by the 35S CaMV promoter, and leaf PAL and Prx enzyme activities were similar to those of the relevant transgenic parent and seven- to tenfold higher than nontransgenic controls. Lignin levels in the PAL/Prx hybrids were higher than the PAL parent and nontransgenic controls, but not significantly higher than the Prx parent. All transgenic plants showed increased resistance to the necrotrophs Phytophthora parasitica pv. nicotianae and Cercospora nicotianae compared to nontransgenic controls, with a preponderance of smaller lesion categories produced in Prx-expressing lines. However, the PAL/Prx hybrids showed no significant increase in resistance to either pathogen relative to the Prx parental line. These data indicate that, in tobacco, the PAL and Prx transgenes do not act additively in disease resistance. Stacking with Prx did not prevent a visible growth inhibition from PAL overexpression. Practical use of ShPAL will likely require more sophisticated developmental control, and we conclude that ShPx2 is a preferred candidate for development as a resistance transgene.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.275-282
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• 2010

Chloroplast transformation in higher plants offers many attractive advantages over nuclear transformation, including a high-level accumulation of foreign proteins, multi-gene expression in single transformation event via transgene stacking in operons and no position effect due to site-specific integration of transgenes by homologous recombination. Most importantly, chloroplast transgenic plants are eco-friendly because their transgenes are maternally inheritance in most crop plants. However, chloroplast transformation system has limited success in crops alike nuclear transformation. In the past two decades, great progress has been made to overcome the limitations of chloroplast transformation, thus expending chloroplast bioreactor to several important crops including soybean, carrot, lettuce, and oilseed. Therefore, it has become possible that chloroplast transformation of crops can be used not only for the improvement of agronomic traits, but also for the production of vaccines and high valuable therapeutic proteins in pharmaceutical industry.