Novel Approach to Parasitic Weed Control Based on Inducible Expression of Cecropin in Transgenic Plants
Authors: Aly Radi , Westwood James H. , Cramer Carole L. 
Published: December 2021

Our overall goal was to engineer crop plants with enhanced resistance to Orobanche (broomrape) based on the inducible expression of sarcotoxin-like peptide (SLP). A secondary objective was to localize small proteins such as SLP in the host-parasite union in order to begin characterizing the mechanism of SLP toxicity to Orobanche. We have successfully accomplished both of these objectives and have demonstrated that transgenic tobacco plants expressing SLP under control of the HMG2 promoter show enhanced resistance to O. aegyptiaca and O. ramosa . Furthermore, we have shown that proteins much larger than the SLP move into Orobanche tubercles from the host root via either symplastic or apoplastic routes. This project was initiated with the finding that enhanced resistance to Orobanche could be conferred on tobacco, potato, and tomato by expression of SLP (Sarcotoxin IA is a 40-residue peptide produced as an antibiotic by the flesh fly, Sarcophaga peregrina ) under the control of a low-level, root-specific promoter. To improve the level of resistance, we linked the SLP gene to the promoter from HMG2, which is strongly inducible by Orobanche as it parasitizes the host. The resulting transgenic plants express SLP and show increased resistance to Orobanche. Resistance in this case is manifested by increased growth and yield of the host in the presence of the parasite as compared to non-transgenic plants, and decreased parasite growth. The mechanism of resistance appears to operate post-attachment as the parasite tubercles attached to the transgenic root plants turned necrotic and failed to develop normally. Studies examining the movement of GFP (approximately 6X the size of SLP) produced in tobacco roots showed accumulation of green fluorescence in tubercles growing on transformed plants but not in those growing on wild-type plants. This accumulation occurs regardless of whether the GFP is targeted to the cytoplasm (translocated symplastically) or the apoplastic space (translocated in xylem). Plants expressing SLP appear normal as compared to non-transgenic plants in the absence of Orobanche, so there is no obvious unintended impact on the host plant from SLP expression. This project required the creation of several gene constructs and generation of many transformed plant lines in order to address the research questions. The specific objectives of the project were to: 1. Make gene constructs fusing Orobanche-inducible promoter sequences to either the sarcotoxin-like peptide (SLP) gene or the GFP reporter gene. 2. Create transgenic plants containing gene constructs. 3. Characterize patterns of transgene expression and host-to-parasite movement of gene products in tobacco ( Nicotiana tabacum L.) and Arabidopsis thaliana (L.). 4. Characterize response of transgenic potato ( Solanum tuberosum L.) and tomato ( Lycopersicon esculentum Mill .) to Orobanche in lab, greenhouse, and field. Objectives 1 and 2 were largely accomplished during the first year during Dr. Aly's sabbatical visit to Virginia Tech. Transforming and analyzing plants with all the constructs has taken longer than expected, so efforts have concentrated on the most important constructs. Work on objective 4 has been delayed pending the final results of analysis on tobacco and Arabidopsis transgenic plants. The implications of this work are profound, because the Orobanche spp. is an extremely destructive weed that is not controlled effectively by traditional cultural or herbicidal weed control strategies. This is the first example of engineering resistance to parasitic weeds and represents a unique mode of action for selective control of these weeds. This research highlights the possibility of using this technique for resistance to other parasitic species and demonstrates the feasibility of developing other novel strategies for engineering resistance to parasitic weeds.