Genetic engineering for increasing resistance of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) to pod borer (Helicoverpa armigera)

Document Type : Original Articles

Authors

• Nasrin Moshtaghi ¹
• Abdol Reza Bagheri ¹
• T.J Higgins
• Mokhtar Jalali Javaran ²
• Behzad Ghareyazie

¹ Faculty of Agriculture, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

² Faculty of Agriculture, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

10.22067/ijpr.v1i1.6347

Abstract

Pod borer is one of the main factors for yield decrease of chickpea. Therefore, breeding of
chickpea for resistance to this pest is important. Modified cry1Ac gene of Bacillus thuringiensis in
pCry1Ac-nptII plasmid containing twin T-DNA for cry1Ac and nptII genes have been used for
transformation of chickpea. At last 38 plants had nptII gene that 36 plants of them had cry1Ac gene
and two plants had only nptII gene. Western blotting analysis showed that 30 plants had Cry1Ac
protein expression. Transformation percentage was 0.37 in this experiment. Only 7 plants produced T1
seeds. Regarding to western blotting and PCR analysis for T0 and T1, plants were devided to some
groups with different expressions. Bioassay with neonate of pod borer showed high mortality in lines
with high Cry1Ac protein expression.
Key words: Bt, Chickpea, cry1Ac, pod borer, transformation

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