Cry2Aa Delta-Endotoxin Confers Strong Resistance Against Brinjal Fruit and Shoot Borer in Transgenic Brinjal (Solanum melongena L.) Plants
Cry2Aa Delta-Endotoxin Confers Strong Resistance Against Brinjal Fruit and Shoot Borer in Transgenic Brinjal (Solanum melongena L.) Plants
Shruti Yadav1,2*, Kamana Singh2, Pratap Adinath Divekar3 and Suhas Gorakh Karkute1,3*
ABSTRACT
Eggplant or brinjal (Solanum melongena L.) is an important fruit vegetable of Solanaceae family that has originated from India and is widely cultivated in tropical and temperate regions across the world. The major constraint for brinjal production is severe damage caused by a Lepidopteran insect pest brinjal shoot and fruit borer (BSFB; Leucinodes orbonalis) leading to almost 60% lossess. In the present study, a codon-modified synthetic Cry2Aa gene was introduced into brinjal through Agrobacterium mediated transformation. Presence of Cry2Aa gene was confirmed by PCR and Southern blot analysis showed single copy insertions in plants of six independent transgenic events. Cry2Aa gene was highly expressed in transgenic plants and its protein level was as high as 30.94 µg/g in fresh leaves and 20.57µg/g in fruits. Insect bioassay showed the BSFB larval mortality between 90% to 100%. Altogether it was observed that expression of the Cry2Aa protein in the shoots and fruit of transgenic brinjal lead to high BSFB larval mortality. Thus, Cry2Aa is a potential alternate gene to presently used Cry1Ac gene which can also be used for managing the resistance breakdown.
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