A Bacillus thuringiensis Cry protein controls soybean cyst nematode in transgenic soybean plants.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 34099714.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-021-23743-3 and PMC identifier 8184815.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Plant-parasitic nematodes (PPNs) are economically important pests of agricultural crops, and soybean cyst nematode (SCN) in particular is responsible for a large amount of damage to soybean. The need for new solutions for controlling SCN is becoming increasingly urgent, due to the slow decline in effectiveness of the widely used native soybean resistance derived from genetic line PI 88788. Thus, developing transgenic traits for controlling SCN is of great interest. Here, we report a Bacillus thuringiensis delta-endotoxin, Cry14Ab, that controls SCN in transgenic soybean. Experiments in C. elegans suggest the mechanism by which the protein controls nematodes involves damaging the intestine, similar to the mechanism of Cry proteins used to control insects. Plants expressing Cry14Ab show a significant reduction in cyst numbers compared to control plants 30 days after infestation. Field trials also show a reduction in SCN egg counts compared with control plants, demonstrating that this protein has excellent potential to control PPNs in soybean.
Medical subject headings
- Bacillus thuringiensis Toxins
- Crops, Agricultural
- Disease Resistance
- Endotoxins
- Hemolysin Proteins
- Glycine max
- Tylenchoidea