Construction of Nicotiana tabacum L transgenic plants expressing the bacterial gene for beta-1,3-glucanase .2. Transgenic plants expressing the beta-1,3-glucanase gene of Clostridium thermocellum represent a model for studying differential expression of stress response-related genes

The modified hybrid beta-1,3-glucanase gene (glc) of Clostridium thermocellum was expressed in tobacco Nicotiana tabacum. The glc gene was cloned into two plasmids, pC27-glc and pC29-glc, in which its expression was controlled by the T(R)2' promoter of the 2' gene of T-DNA and the rbcS promoter of Arabidopsis, respectively. These constructions were used for transformation of agrobacteria followed by transfer into plants. In transformed plants, each plasmid caused a high level of activity of thermostable bacterial glucanase not observed in reference plants. The plants obtained were used to study activation of some defense-related genes induced by their interaction with either tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) or a pathogenic fungus.