Maize genetic transformation with a new protein the Zeolin

Author(s)

Luciana Pimenta Ambrozevicius

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Piracicaba.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALA/BC)
• Defense date: 2010-03-25

Examining board members

Ricardo Antunes de Azevedo; Gerhard Bandel; Carlos Alberto Labate; Leonardo Oliveira Medici; Marcio José da Silva

• Advisor: Ricardo Antunes de Azevedo

Abstract

Lysine is an essential amino acid and a major factor limiting the use of cereals such as maize for food and feed as, without supplementation, does not allow obtaining a balanced diet. In order to improve the nutritional quality of cereals, several attempts have been made using the conventional breeding. With the advent of genetic engineering techniques it is now possible to use biotechnology to develop further studies and to unravel the complex mechanisms that control the flow of amino acids in grains. The present work aimed at testing a new strategy based on the expression of a chimeric protein, the zeolin, under the control of an endosperm specific promoter. The zeolin is a combination of 421 amino acids of bean phaseolin with 89 amino acids of the maize - zein inserted into the maize genome under the control of a promoter isolated from the protein -kafirin from sorghum. For the goal of the project to be reached, the work was divided into the following steps: i) Synthesis of the construction and the cloning vectors; ii) Transformation of embryos and callus of maize using the biolistic and Agrobacterium tumefaciens methods; iii) Tissue culture for selection and regeneration of transformed plants iv) Verification of transformation events through the analysis of the DNA, RNA and protein from the transgene; v) Preliminary analysis of transformed plants for the storage proteins pattern and amino acid profile of the grains. The zeolin construction was amplified by PCR with specific primers and cloned into the vectors pCambia3301 and pTF102 under the control of the promoter -kafirin. Embryos and callus of HiII hybrid were used in the transformation using the biolistic and Agrobacterium tumefaciens. At the end of the process of transformatio, eight maize plants transformed with zeolin were produced and multiplied, confirmed by biological tests, PCR, sequencing and immunochromatographic tests, representing six transformation events. The gene expression, verified by detection of mRNA by PCR, was found in six events of transformation. The protein translation, verified by Western Blot using an antibody specific for phaseolin, was found in three transformation events. In the preliminary analysis, the pattern of zein, globulin, glutelin or albumin fractions did not change comparing transformed plants with the controls. There were also no significant differences in the content of soluble amino acids among the Western positive transformed plants and the controls. In the HPLC amino acid profile, the event ZEO-3(3) showed the higher concentrations for all amino acids analyzed. In this transformation event the content of lysine was 25,76mg/g protein, while the controls exhibited values of 9,77 and 15,89mg/g protein. Therefore, ZEO-3(3) event presents itself as a candidate for further studies to reveal the complex mechanisms that control the flow of amino acids and accumulation of storage proteins in maize kernels. (AU)