转基因植物转录后基因沉默的克服对策

人们对植物进行遗传转化的目的是让转基因在植物基因组中能够稳定整合并在当代及其子代中能够有效、稳定的表达 ,但是由于多种因素的影响 ,转基因在植物中的表达并不很理想。自从 1 986年Ｐｅｅｒｂｏｔｔｅ报道转基因烟草中转基因发生沉默以来 ,很多学者也都发现大量的转基因植株不能正常表达[1]。经过多年的研究 ,发现导致转基因沉默的机理有多种 ,根据其作用机理和水平的不同 ,人们通常把转基因沉默分为[2 ,3]:位置依赖性基因沉默 (Ｐｏｓｔｉｏｎ -ｄｅｐｅｎｄｅｎｔｇｅｎｅｓｉｌｅｎｃｉｎｇ ,ＰＤＧＳ)、转录水平的基因沉默 (Ｔｒ…     

High-stearic and High-oleic cottonseed oils produced by hairpin RNA-mediated post-transcriptional gene silencing

We have genetically modified the fatty acid composition of cottonseed oil using the recently developed technique of hairpin RNA-mediated gene silencing to down-regulate the seed expression of two key fatty acid desaturase genes, ghSAD-1-encoding stearoyl-acyl-carrier protein Delta 9-desaturase and ghFAD2-1-encoding oleoyl-phosphatidylcholine omega 6-desaturase. Hairpin RNA-encoding gene constructs (HP) targeted against either ghSAD-1 or ghFAD2-1 were transformed into cotton (Gossypium hirsutum cv Coker 315). The resulting down-regulation of the ghSAD-1 gene substantially increased stearic acid from the normal levels of 2% to 3% up to as high as 40%, and silencing of the ghFAD2-1 gene resulted in greatly elevated oleic acid content, up to 77% compared with about 15% in seeds of untransformed plants. In addition, palmitic acid was significantly lowered in both high-stearic and high-oleic lines. Similar fatty acid composition phenotypes were also achieved by transformation with conventional antisense constructs targeted against the same genes, but at much lower frequencies than were achieved with the HP constructs. By intercrossing the high-stearic and high-oleic genotypes, it was possible to simultaneously down-regulate both ghSAD-1 and ghFAD2-1 to the same degree as observed in the individually silenced parental lines, demonstrating for the first time, to our knowledge, that duplex RNA-induced posttranslational gene silencing in independent genes can be stacked without any diminution in the degree of silencing. The silencing of ghSAD-1 and/or ghFAD2-1 to various degrees enables the development of cottonseed oils having novel combinations of palmitic, stearic, oleic, and linoleic contents that can be used in margarines and deep frying without hydrogenation and also potentially in high-value confectionery applications.