RECOVERY OF TRANSGENIC RICE PLANTS EXPRESSING THE VICE DWARF VIRUS OUTER COAT PROTEIN GENE (S8)

The coding region of the eighth largest segment (S8) of the rice dwarf virus (RDV) was obtained from a RDV Fujian isolate. It was then clone d into pTrcHisA for expression in E. coli and into vector pE3 for plan t transformation. By using callus derived from mature rice embryos as the target tissue, we obtained regenerated rice plants after bombardme nt of the former with plasmid pE3R8 containing the RDV S8 gene and the marker gene neomycin phosphotransferase (NPT II). Southern blotting c onfirmed the integration of the RDV S8 gene into the rice genome. The expression of the outer coat protein in both E. coli and rice plants w as confirmed by western blotting. The recovery of transgenic rice plan ts expressing S8 gene is an important step towards studying the functi on of the RDV genes and obtaining RDV-resistant rice plants.