INHERITANCE OF GENE ENCODING THE ANTIBACTERIAL PROTEIN COLICIN M IN THE OFFSPRING OF LETTUCE TRANSGENIC PLANTS

Abstract

The increasing antibiotic resistance of bacterial pathogens and recurring outbreaks of foodborne infections caused by enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) strains require the search for alternative means of preventing infectious diseases and controlling pathogenic strains. One promising approach is the use of bacteriocins— antimicrobial proteins of bacterial origin that also can be successfully produced in biotechnological plants. Previously, we demonstrated the creation of transgenic lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) plants expressing one of the bacteriocins, colicin M, and confirmed the antibacterial activity of extracts from these plants against various E. coli strains, including pathogenic serotypes such as O157:H7. In this study, we present research on the transgene inheritance in the progeny of these transgenic plants, the identification of lines potentially with a single insertion, and the development of stable homozygous transgenic lettuce lines with the colicin M gene. The presence of colicin M expression in the progeny of transgenic lettuce plants was assessed by determining the antibacterial activity of plant extracts against laboratory strains of E. coli. The results of this work confirm the potential for developing biotechnological plants that produce antimicrobial proteins to combat bacterial pathogens.