Increased Tolerance to Wheat Powdery Mildew by Heterologous Constitutive Expression of the Solanum chacoense snakin-1 Gene

Great efforts are currently being devoted to studying the use of transgenes to confer resistance to phytopathogenic fungi. Snakin-1 is a broad-spectrum antimicrobial peptide isolated from Solanum that is active in vitro against bacteria and fungi. Recently, it was reported that overexpression of the snakin-1 (SN1) gene in transgenic potato plants enhanced resistance to Rhizoctonia solani and Erwinia carotovora. In this work wheat transgenic plants that constitutively expressed the S. chacoense SN1 gene were challenged with Blumeria graminis f.sp. tritici. Enhanced resistance to the pathogen was observed in two transgenic lines in which the development of the disease was delayed and reduced compared with the wild type variety ProINTA Federal. An association between high resistance to the pathogen and a high level of snakin-1 transcripts in the plant was observed. This is the first report on SN1 gene expression in Gramineae and its effects on wheat powdery mildew development.