XVI International Botanical Congess

Thionin has been known as an antimicrobial peptide. We isolated 5 leaf specific thionin genes expressing in etiolated oat seedling. When the thionin with the highest pI was overproduced using a strong promoter in rice plants, seedlings grown from the self-pollinated transgenic seeds which had been inoculated with Pseudomonas plantarii (bacterial seedling blight off disease), showed no clear symptoms of the disease, while almost all seedlings of wild-type rice plants wilted and developed white streaks. In transgenic rice plants, an abundant thionin was recovered from cell wall where is a battle of pathogen.