A new approach to protect tobacco plants from Cd contamination using the attenuated recombinant virus CMV△2b containing the PvSR2 gene

• Main Authors: Juan Wu, Qiang Wang, Xiwu Zhu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2020-01-01
• Series: Biotechnology & Biotechnological Equipment
• Subjects: cmv△2b; pvsr2 gene; cd; nicotiana benthamiana; virus vector
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13102818.2020.1777898

Reducing the Cd content in crop plants is an important process for ensuring the safety of food made from the crop. In this study, the CMV△2b vector was used to express the PvSR2 gene to reduce the Cd content of Nicotiana benthamiana plants. The infectious clone plasmid pCB301-CMVFny209△2b-PvSR2 was successfully constructed. N. benthamiana plants at six leaf stages were inoculated with plasmid-Agrobacterium (GV3101) containing pCB301-CMVFny209△2b-PvSR2, pCB301-CMVFny109 and pCB301-CMVFny309 by agroinfiltration. After the virus had been detected in the non-inoculated leaves of the plant inoculated with plasmid-agrobacterium corresponding to each treatment, the plant of each treatments in the experiment were inoculated with sap of plant leaves containing the virus. After 8 days, the plants were treated with Cd++ solution. The Cd content of the plant samples was analyzed via inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry. The results show that the plants expressing the PvSR2 gene had greatly reduced Cd++ content than the control and grow normally. These results indicated that using the attenuated recombinant virus CMV△2b containing the PvSR2 gene significantly enhanced the resistance of the plant to Cd++. This is a new approach to protect tobacco plants from Cd contamination by using the attenuated recombinant virus CMV△2b containing the PvSR2 gene.