Response of sweet orange transgenic plants to infection of Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. citri and Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus

Author(s)

Thiago Sena Simões

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Biologia
• Defense date: 2008-11-24

Examining board members

Marcos Antonio Machado; Celso Eduardo Benedetti; Francisco de Assis Alves Mourão Filho

• Advisor: Marcos Antonio Machado; Raquel Luciana Boscariol Camargo

Abstract

Huanglongbing (HLB), also known as greening, is the world most important citrus disease and it is caused by the bacterium Candidatus Liberibacter spp. This disease was originated from China and Africa, where were discovered the variants Ca. L. asiaticus and Ca. L. africanus, respectively. In 2004, the disease was detected in Brazil, where the variants asiaticus and a new one called americanus were identified. The Ca. Liberibacter bacteria inhabit phloem vessels of host plants, causing yellowing of infected branches, and fruits abscission. At the moment, it was not possible to cultivate Ca. Liberibacter, and very little is known about its biology. Another important disease of citrus, the citrus canker, is also originated from Asian continent and causes huge damages to citrus production because of leaf drop and prematurely falI of fruits. Its causal agent, the bacterium Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. citri, causes necrotic lesions in leaves, branches and fruits. There is no varietal resistance to HLB ar citrus canker, and it is necessary to develop studies in order to achieve altemative resistance sources to these diseases. One possibility to obtain resistance is the use of genetically modified plants expressing antimicrobial peptides genes, or expressing genes that act in theplant defense response machinery. The genes attacinA and Xa21 were used in genetic constructions for sweet orange varieties, and both showed resistarice to bacterial pathogens in other crops, with small number of lesions caused by X axonopodis in transgenic sweet orange plants. Another interesting gene, the Nprl, is a regulator that acts in the induction of plant defense response against pathogens. 1n other crops, the Npr 1 super-expression caused high leveI of resistance to bacterial and fungal pathogens. The goal ofthe present study was to evaluate the response of genetically modified sweet orange plants with these three genes, after infection of Ca. Liberibacter, and the response of plants containing the AtNprl gene, after X axonopodis inoculation. The response to Ca. Liberibacter infection was analyzed by the evaluation of HLB symptoms and by the quantification of phloem-associated bacteria by qPCR based on a previously characterized Ca. Liberibacter 168 ribosomal region. PIants inoculated with the causal agent of citrus canker were analyzed by RT-PCR to detect the expression of PR-proteins. The quantification of bacterial population was deveIoped using a growth curve and by visual analysis of symptoms. The bacterium Ca. Liberibacter grown in alI the transformation events analyzed, however four of them (transformed with the AtNprl gene) did not develop disease symptoms. Also, two. plants of this construction showed reduction in the number and size of lesions caused by X axonopodis, indicating a possible induction of plant tolerance to citrus canker. (AU)