ABSTRACT
High levels of expression of the cry1Ac gene from Bacillus thuringiensis cannot be routinely achieved in transgenic plants despite modifications made in the gene to improve its expression. This has been attributed to the instability of the transcript in a few reports. In the present study, based on the genetic transformation of cotton and tobacco, we show that the expression of the Cry1Ac endotoxin has detrimental effects on both the in vitro and in vivo growth and development of transgenic plants. A number of experiments on developing transgenics in cotton with different versions of cry1Ac gene showed that the majority of the plants did not express any Cry1Ac protein. Based on Southern blot analysis, it was also observed that a substantial number of lines did not contain the cry1Ac gene cassette although they contained the marker gene nptII. More significantly, all the lines that showed appreciable levels of expression were found to be phenotypically abnormal. Experiments on transformation of tobacco with different constructs expressing the cry1Ac gene showed that in vitro regeneration was inhibited by the encoded protein. Further, out of a total of 145 independent events generated with the different cry1Ac gene constructs in tobacco, only 21 showed expression of the Cry1Ac protein, confirming observations made in cotton that regenerants that express high levels of the Cry1Ac protein are selected against during regeneration of transformed events. This problem was circumvented by targeting the Cry1Ac protein to the chloroplast, which also significantly improved the expression of the protein.
ABSTRACT
Variations in transgene expression due to position effect and copy number are normalized when analysing and comparing the strengths of different promoters. In such experiments, the promoter to be tested is placed upstream to a reporter gene and a second expression cassette is introduced in a linked fashion in the same transfer DNA (T-DNA). Normalization in the activity of the test promoter is carried out by calculating the ratio of activities of the test and reference promoters. When an appropriate number of independent transgenic events are analysed, normalization facilitates assessment of the relative strengths of the test promoters being compared. In this study, using different modifi ed versions of the Caulifl ower Mosaic Virus (CaMV) 35S promoter expressing the reporter gene β-glucuronidase (gus) (test cassette) linked to a chloramphenicol acetyl transferase (cat) gene under the wild-type 35S promoter (reference cassette) in transgenic tobacco lines, we observed that cat gene expression varied depending upon the strength of the modifi ed 35S promoter expressing the gus gene. The 35S promoter in the reference cassette was found to have been upregulated in cases where the modifi ed 35S promoter was weaker than the wild-type 35S promoter. Many studies have been carried out in different organisms to study the phenomenon of transcriptional interference, which refers to the reduced expression of the downstream promoter by a closely linked upstream promoter. However, we observed a positive interaction wherein the weakened activity of a promoter led to upregulation of a contiguous promoter. These observations suggest that, in situations where the promoters of the test and reference gene share the same transcription factors, the activity of the test promoter can infl uence the activity of the reference promoter in a way that the test promoter’s strength is underestimated when normalized by the reference promoter.
ABSTRACT
Agrobacterium strains harbour insertion sequences, which are known to transpose into genomes as well as into Ti plasmids. In this study we report the inactivation of a transgene due to transposition of the A. tumefaciens insertion sequence IS136. The transposition was discovered following transformation of plant tissues, although the fi delity of the binary vector was confi rmed following transformation into Agrobacterium. Such transpositions are rare but can occur and it is thus important to check the fi delity of the binary vector at different times of Agrobacterium growth in order to avoid failure in achieving transgene expression.