Insect resistance conferred by 283-kDa Photorhabdus luminescens protein TcdA in Arabidopsis thaliana

• Published in: Nature biotechnology 2003-10, Vol.21 (10), p.1222-1228
• Main Authors: Liu, Dong, Burton, Stephanie, Glancy, Todd, Li, Ze-Sheng, Hampton, Ronnie, Meade, Thomas, Merlo, Donald J
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Agriculture; Amino acids; Animals; Arabidopsis - genetics; Arabidopsis - metabolism; Arabidopsis - parasitology; Arabidopsis thaliana; Bacterial Toxins - biosynthesis; Bacterial Toxins - genetics; Bacterial Toxins - pharmacology; Bioinformatics; Biological and medical sciences; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedical Engineering/Biotechnology; Biomedicine; Biotechnology; Coleoptera - drug effects; Diabrotica undecimpunctata howardi; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Genetic engineering; Genetic Enhancement - methods; Genetic technics; Immunity, Innate - physiology; Insecticides - metabolism; Insecticides - pharmacology; Insects; Life Sciences; Manduca - growth & development; Manduca sexta; Methods. Procedures. Technologies; osm gene; Pest control; Pest Control, Biological - methods; Pests; Photorhabdus - genetics; Photorhabdus - metabolism; Photorhabdus luminescens; Plants, Genetically Modified - genetics; Plants, Genetically Modified - metabolism; Plants, Genetically Modified - parasitology; Proteins; Recombinant Proteins - biosynthesis; tcdA gene; Tobacco; Toxicity; Toxins; Transgenic animals and transgenic plants; Transgenic plants
• ISSN: 1087-0156; 1546-1696
• DOI: 10.1038/nbt866

The tcdA gene of Photorhabdus luminescens encodes a 283-kDa protein, toxin A, that is highly toxic to a variety of insects, including some agriculturally important pests. We tested the efficacy of transgenic toxin A in Arabidopsis thaliana for control of feeding insects. Plants with toxin A expression above about 700 ng/mg of extractable protein were highly toxic to tobacco hornworm ( Manduca sexta ). Toxin A isolated from transgenic plants also strongly inhibited growth of the southern corn rootworm ( Diabrotica undecimpunctata howardi ). Addition of 5′ and 3′ untranslated regions of a tobacco osmotin gene ( osm ) increased toxin A production 10-fold and recovery of insect-resistant lines 12-fold. In the best line, high toxin A expression and insect resistance were maintained for at least five generations in all progeny. The intact tcdA mRNA represents the largest effective transgenic transcript produced in plants to date. These results may open a new route to transgenic pest control in agriculture.