IN VITRO ACTIVITY AND CDNA CLONING OF AN ANTIFUNGAL PROTEIN WITH STRONG GIBBERELLA ZEAE RESISTANCE FROM GASTRODIA ELATA BLUME

摘要

A 14-kDa, Gastrodia antifungal protein (GAFP) was extracted and purified from a traditional Chinese medical herb, Gastrodia etata Bl. The antifungal activity of the protein towards pathogens of wheat and other economically important plants was examined in vitro, from which GAFP shows strong resistance to Gibberella zeae and other fungi. Using the method of solid-phase construction, a high-quality cDNA library of G. elata was constructed. On the basis of the N-terminal sequence information of GAFP, a 30-bp probe was designed to screen the cDNA library. Finally, a full-length cDNA with a 534-bp open reading frame encoding a 178 amino acid protein was fished out from the cDNA library, which may provide more effective approaches to engineering wheat with new G. zeae resistance genes and other plants with broad-spectrum and durable disease control.