Czech J. Genet. Plant Breed., 2018, 54(1):26-29 | DOI: 10.17221/23/2017-CJGPB

Lignin biosynthesis regulated by the antisense 4CL gene in alfalfaShort Communication

Jing MENG, Caona LI, Manlin ZHAO, Cheng WANG, Yi RU, Zhixin CUI, Yang HAN^*

School of Life Science, Liaoning University, Shenyang, P.R. China

The Antisense 4CL gene was transfected into alfalfa through Agrobacterium-mediated transfer. The test results indicated that the antisense 4CL gene was successfully integrated into the genome DNA of alfalfa and was stably transmitted to the offspring. Compared to the wild-type plants, the lignin content of T₀ and T₁ generation plants was reduced by 45.77% and 31.97%, respectively; there were no significant differences in height and weight of T₀ and T₁ plants, compared to the wild-type plants. However, the transgenic plant differed from the wild-type plant by softer stems and leaves, larger leaves, fewer flowers and a fewer seeds. The T₀ line was susceptible to disease infection, but significantly improved in the second year. The results suggest that the 4CL gene from Amorpha fruticosa can be used to regulate lignin biosynthesis in transgenic forage crops.

Keywords: antisense recombinant plasmid; 4-coumarate coenzyme A ligase; lignin content; Medicago sativa

Published: March 31, 2018  Show citation