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N -acetyltransferase AAC(3)-I confers gentamicin resistance to Phytophthora palmivora and Phytophthora infestans

Published version
Peer-reviewed

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Abstract

Abstract: Background: Oomycetes are pathogens of mammals, fish, insects and plants, and the potato late blight agent Phytophthora infestans and the oil palm and cocoa infecting pathogen Phytophthora palmivora cause economically impacting diseases on a wide range of crop plants. Increasing genomic and transcriptomic resources and recent advances in oomycete biology demand new strategies for genetic modification of oomycetes. Most oomycete transformation procedures rely on geneticin-based selection of transgenic strains. Results: We established N-acetyltransferase AAC(3)-I as a gentamicin-based selectable marker for oomycete transformation without interference with existing geneticin resistance. Strains carrying gentamicin resistance are fully infectious in plants. We further demonstrate the usefulness of this new antibiotic selection to super-transform well-characterized, already fluorescently-labelled P. palmivora strains and provide a comprehensive protocol for maintenance and zoospore electro-transformation of Phytophthora strains to aid in plant-pathogen research. Conclusions: N-acetyltransferase AAC(3)-I is functional in Phytophthora oomycetes. In addition, the substrate specificity of the AAC(3)-I enzyme allows for re-transformation of geneticin-resistant strains. Our findings and resources widen the possibilities to study oomycete cell biology and plant-oomycete interactions.

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Keywords

Research Article, Microbe-host interactions and microbial pathogenicity, Oomycete, Counter-selection, Aminoglycoside, N-acetyltransferase, Specificity

Journal Title

BMC Microbiology

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1471-2180

Volume Title

19

Publisher

BioMed Central
Sponsorship
Gatsby Charitable Foundation (GAT3395/GLD)
Royal Society (UF160413)