CONSTRUCTION OF NICOTIANA-TABACUM-L TRANS GENIC PLANTS EXPRESSING THEBACTERIAL GENE FOR BETA-1,3-GLUCANASE .2. TRANSGENIC PLANTS EXPRESSING THE BETA-1,3-GLUCANASE GENE OF CLOSTRIDIUM-THERMOCELLUM REPRESENT A MODEL FOR STUDYING DIFFERENTIAL EXPRESSION OF STRESS RESPONSE-RELATED GENES

The modified hybrid beta-1,3-glucanase gene (glc) of Clostridium therm ocellum was expressed in tobacco Nicotiana tabacum. The glc gene was c loned into two plasmids, pC27-glc and pC29-glc, in which its expressio n was controlled by the T(R)2' promoter of the 2' gene of T-DNA and th e rbcS promoter of Arabidopsis, respectively. These constructions were used for transformation of agrobacteria followed by transfer into pla nts. In transformed plants, each plasmid caused a high level of activi ty of thermostable bacterial glucanase not observed in reference plant s. The plants obtained were used to study activation of some defense-r elated genes induced by their interaction with either tobacco mosaic v irus (TMV) or a pathogenic fungus.