AUTHOR=Dutta Tushar K. , Papolu Pradeep K. , Banakar Prakash , Choudhary Divya , Sirohi Anil , Rao Uma TITLE=Tomato transgenic plants expressing hairpin construct of a nematode protease gene conferred enhanced resistance to root-knot nematodes JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology VOLUME=6 YEAR=2015 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2015.00260 DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2015.00260 ISSN=1664-302X ABSTRACT=

Root-knot nematodes (Meloidogyne incognita) cause substantial yield losses in vegetables worldwide, and are difficult to manage. Continuous withdrawal of environmentally-harmful nematicides from the global market warrants the need for novel nematode management strategies. Utility of host-delivered RNAi has been demonstrated in several plants (Arabidopsis, tobacco, and soybean) that exhibited resistance against root-knot and cyst nematodes. Herein, a M. incognita-specific protease gene, cathepsin L cysteine proteinase (Mi-cpl-1), was targeted to generate tomato transgenic lines to evaluate the genetically modified nematode resistance. In vitro knockdown of Mi-cpl-1 gene led to the reduced attraction and penetration of M. incognita in tomato, suggesting the involvement of Mi-cpl-1 in nematode parasitism. Transgenic expression of the RNAi construct of Mi-cpl-1 gene resulted in 60–80% reduction in infection and multiplication of M. incognita in tomato. Evidence for in vitro and in vivo silencing of Mi-cpl-1 was confirmed by expression analysis using quantitative PCR. Our study demonstrates that Mi-cpl-1 plays crucial role during plant-nematode interaction and plant-mediated downregulation of this gene elicits detrimental effect on M. incognita development, reinforcing the potential of RNAi technology for management of phytonematodes in crop plants.