Question

Explain the role of Agrobacterium tumifacience in developing resistance in tobacco plant against nematode Meloidegyne incognitia. Name the processes responsible for this.

Answer 1

• To produce the desired GMO, Agrobacterium tumefaciens can insert a portion of its own genome, known as T-DNA, into the infected plant cells. The tobacco plants’ roots are infected by the nematode Meloidegyne incognitia, which significantly lowers output.
• To stop this infection, the RNA interference (RNAi) technique is employed. Every eukaryotic organism uses RNA interference (RNAi) as a cellular defense mechanism. It is a mechanism via which sequence-specific mRNA degradation is guided by double-stranded RNA (dsRNA).
• A complementary dsRNA molecule silences a particular mRNA by preventing its translation. Nematode-specific genes (DNA) were inserted into the host plant (tobacco plant) using Agrobacterium vectors.
• When DNA is introduced into host cells, sense and anti-sense RNA are produced. Since these two RNAs are complementary to one another, they create a double stranded RNA (dsRNA), which starts RNA interference and silences the nematode’s particular mRNA.
• As a result, in a transgenic host that expresses a particular interfering RNA, the parasite cannot survive.