Investigation on growth and development of 42 kDa chitinase transgenic peanuts (Arachis hypogaea L.) cultivar L14 under in vivo condition

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the growth and development of chitinase transgenic peanuts against phytopathogenic fungi including lines WTA-2 containing the Chi42 gene, S1A-15 containing the syncodChi42-1 gene and S2A-12 containing the syncodChi42-2 gene. The present results show that the peanut lines containing two optimized genes derived from the Chi42 wild-type gene of Trichoderma asperellum SH16, S1A-15 (syncodChi42-1) and S2A-12 (syncodChi42-2) seemed to grow stronger and produce a higher number of mature pods, weight of 100 pods and weight of 100 seeds than line WAT-2 with the Chi42 gene and non-transgenic control. Moreover, lines S1A-15 and S2A-12 also resulted in higher seed quality in terms of lipid and protein content than in comparison to the WTA-2 line and the control. These findings suggest that chitinase transgenic peanuts containing one of two synthetic genes in peanut roots could be a promising candidate for peanut production against phytopathogenic fungi.