999.
Persistent decrease in the productivity of cowpea (
Vigna unguiculata L.) has been partly due to attack by bruchids including
Zabrotes subfasciatus and
Callosobruchus maculatus. Resistance to these insects in
Phaseolus vulgaris L. has been shown to be associated with arcelins, a family of seed proteins encoded by a multigenic family of lectins on the APA locus. In this work, we report the construction of an expression vector containing
Arc1 gene isolated from
P. vulgaris and introduced into cowpea as a strategy to confer resistance to insect attack. Following transformation and selection, feeding experiments in which
C. maculatus and
Z. subfasciatus were fed with transgenic (L3 and L5) and non-transgenic (control) grains showed that introduced gene protected the transgenic line. Significant differences (
p < .05 and
p < .01) were found in the number of eggs laid, the number of emerging insects and the loss of grain mass in L3, compared with control, for both insects. Similar observations were made in L5 with the exception of the number of laid eggs. The strategy here described may form the basis for the development of a cowpea variety tolerant to bruchids in a crop cultivated by farmers throughout Latin America and Africa.
相似文献