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Striga parasitizes transgenic hairy roots of Zea mays and provides a tool for studying plant-plant interactions

BACKGROUND: Striga species are noxious root hemi-parasitic weeds that debilitate cereal production in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Control options for Striga are limited and developing Striga resistant crop germplasm is regarded as the best and most sustainable control measure. Efforts to improve germp...

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Autores principales: Runo, Steven, Macharia, Sarah, Alakonya, Amos, Machuka, Jesse, Sinha, Neelima, Scholes, Julie
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3422161/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22720750
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1746-4811-8-20
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author Runo, Steven
Macharia, Sarah
Alakonya, Amos
Machuka, Jesse
Sinha, Neelima
Scholes, Julie
author_facet Runo, Steven
Macharia, Sarah
Alakonya, Amos
Machuka, Jesse
Sinha, Neelima
Scholes, Julie
author_sort Runo, Steven
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Striga species are noxious root hemi-parasitic weeds that debilitate cereal production in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Control options for Striga are limited and developing Striga resistant crop germplasm is regarded as the best and most sustainable control measure. Efforts to improve germplasm for Striga resistance by a non-Genetic Modification (GM) approach, for example by exploiting natural resistance, or by a GM approach are constrained by limited information on the biological processes underpinning host-parasite associations. Additionaly, a GM approach is stymied by lack of availability of candidate resistance genes for introduction into hosts and robust transformation methods to validate gene functions. Indeed, a majority of Striga hosts, the world’s most cultivated cereals, are recalcitrant to genetic transformation. In maize, the existing protocols for transformation and regeneration are tedious, lengthy, and highly genotype-specific with low efficiency of transformation. RESULTS: We used Agrobacterium rhizogenes strain K599 carrying a reporter gene construct, Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP), to generate transgenic composite maize plants that were challenged with the parasitic plant Striga hermonthica. Eighty five percent of maize plants produced transgenic hairy roots expressing GFP. Consistent with most hairy roots produced in other species, transformed maize roots exhibited a hairy root phenotype, the hallmark of A. rhizogenes mediated transformation. Transgenic hairy roots resulting from A. rhizogenes transformation were readily infected by S. hermonthica. There were no significant differences in the number and size of S. hermonthica individuals recovered from either transgenic or wild type roots. CONCLUSIONS: This rapid, high throughput, transformation technique will advance our understanding of gene function in parasitic plant-host interactions.
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spelling pubmed-34221612012-08-18 Striga parasitizes transgenic hairy roots of Zea mays and provides a tool for studying plant-plant interactions Runo, Steven Macharia, Sarah Alakonya, Amos Machuka, Jesse Sinha, Neelima Scholes, Julie Plant Methods Methodology BACKGROUND: Striga species are noxious root hemi-parasitic weeds that debilitate cereal production in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Control options for Striga are limited and developing Striga resistant crop germplasm is regarded as the best and most sustainable control measure. Efforts to improve germplasm for Striga resistance by a non-Genetic Modification (GM) approach, for example by exploiting natural resistance, or by a GM approach are constrained by limited information on the biological processes underpinning host-parasite associations. Additionaly, a GM approach is stymied by lack of availability of candidate resistance genes for introduction into hosts and robust transformation methods to validate gene functions. Indeed, a majority of Striga hosts, the world’s most cultivated cereals, are recalcitrant to genetic transformation. In maize, the existing protocols for transformation and regeneration are tedious, lengthy, and highly genotype-specific with low efficiency of transformation. RESULTS: We used Agrobacterium rhizogenes strain K599 carrying a reporter gene construct, Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP), to generate transgenic composite maize plants that were challenged with the parasitic plant Striga hermonthica. Eighty five percent of maize plants produced transgenic hairy roots expressing GFP. Consistent with most hairy roots produced in other species, transformed maize roots exhibited a hairy root phenotype, the hallmark of A. rhizogenes mediated transformation. Transgenic hairy roots resulting from A. rhizogenes transformation were readily infected by S. hermonthica. There were no significant differences in the number and size of S. hermonthica individuals recovered from either transgenic or wild type roots. CONCLUSIONS: This rapid, high throughput, transformation technique will advance our understanding of gene function in parasitic plant-host interactions. BioMed Central 2012-06-21 /pmc/articles/PMC3422161/ /pubmed/22720750 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1746-4811-8-20 Text en Copyright ©2012 Runo et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Methodology
Runo, Steven
Macharia, Sarah
Alakonya, Amos
Machuka, Jesse
Sinha, Neelima
Scholes, Julie
Striga parasitizes transgenic hairy roots of Zea mays and provides a tool for studying plant-plant interactions
title Striga parasitizes transgenic hairy roots of Zea mays and provides a tool for studying plant-plant interactions
title_full Striga parasitizes transgenic hairy roots of Zea mays and provides a tool for studying plant-plant interactions
title_fullStr Striga parasitizes transgenic hairy roots of Zea mays and provides a tool for studying plant-plant interactions
title_full_unstemmed Striga parasitizes transgenic hairy roots of Zea mays and provides a tool for studying plant-plant interactions
title_short Striga parasitizes transgenic hairy roots of Zea mays and provides a tool for studying plant-plant interactions
title_sort striga parasitizes transgenic hairy roots of zea mays and provides a tool for studying plant-plant interactions
topic Methodology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3422161/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22720750
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1746-4811-8-20
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