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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, November 1998, p. 4566-4572, Vol. 64, No. 11
0099-2240/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Engineering of a Single-Chain Variable-Fragment
(scFv) Antibody Specific for the Stolbur Phytoplasma (Mollicute)
and Its Expression in Escherichia coli and Tobacco
Plants
Fabrice
Le Gall,
Joseph-Marie
Bové, and
Monique
Garnier*
Laboratoire de Biologie Cellulaire et
Moléculaire, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique et
Université Victor Segalen Bordeaux 2, 33883 Villenave d'Ornon
cedex, France
Received 20 January 1998/Accepted 12 August 1998
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ABSTRACT |
From a hybridoma cell line (2A10) producing an immunoglobulin G1
directed against the major membrane protein of the stolbur phytoplasma,
we have engineered scFv (single-chain variable-fragment) antibodies
from the variable heavy (VH) and light (VL) domains of the
immunoglobulin. The scFv gene was cloned and expressed in
Escherichia coli. The expressed protein of 30 kDa could be recovered from the periplasmic fraction of the bacterial cells and was
shown to be fully functional toward its phytoplasmal antigen, since
enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay or immunofluorescence (IF) detection
of the stolbur phytoplasma antigen by the scFv was identical to that of
the native immunoglobulin. The scFv gene was then cloned in plasmid
pBG-dAb-BIN of Agrobacterium tumefaciens to transform
tobacco plants. The transformed plants were screened by PCR and
Northern blotting for the presence and expression of the transgene,
respectively, and by IF for expression of the scFv. One transgenic
tobacco line, 1A6, was selected for challenge inoculation with the
stolbur phytoplasma. When grafted on a stolbur phytoplasma-infected tobacco rootstock, the transgenic tobacco shoots grew free of symptoms
and flowered after 2 months, while normal tobacco shoots showed severe
stolbur symptoms during the same period and eventually died.
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INTRODUCTION |
Expression in plants of antibodies
(plantibodies) that are able to interfere with the multiplication of
pathogens can provide an efficient way to induce resistance to many
diseases. Mollicutes are wall-less bacteria that infect humans,
animals, and plants (4, 5, 20). They originated, in the
course of evolution, from low-G+C gram-positive bacteria by gene loss
and genome reduction (regressive evolution); in particular, they have
lost the genes responsible for the synthesis of a bacterial cell wall
(5). Thus, mollicutes are limited by a single cytoplasmic
membrane. This is why metabolism and growth of mollicutes are inhibited by antibodies directed against their membrane epitopes. These inhibitions are generally followed by lysis of the mollicute
(18). Thus, plant-pathogenic mollicutes are, a priori, ideal
candidates for a plantibody-controlled resistance strategy.
Mollicutes (phytoplasmas and spiroplasmas) are responsible for more
than 300 diseases of vegetable, ornamental, and perennial plants
(20). These agents are localized exclusively in the sieve tubes of the phloem tissue (9), into which they are
inoculated by insect vectors (leafhoppers and psyllids). Phytoplasmas,
the largest group of plant-pathogenic mollicutes, cannot be grown in
artificial media. As of today, diseases induced by plant mollicutes cannot be controlled.
Recently, several groups were able to express mouse-derived antibodies
in plants (1, 2, 8, 14, 17, 22, 24), and reduction of virus
multiplication has been observed in transgenic plants expressing whole
immunoglobulin G (IgG) or single-chain variable-fragment (scFv)
antibody directed against the virus coat protein (27, 28).
Since the growth of mollicutes is inhibited by antibodies, constitutive
expression in a plant of an antibody specific for a given mollicute
should prevent its multiplication, especially since the number of
mollicutes inoculated by an insect vector is small (<103).
To evaluate the ability of antibodies to control mollicute diseases in
plants, we have engineered and expressed in tobacco plants monoclonal
antibody 2A10, directed against the major membrane protein of the
stolbur phytoplasma (16). The stolbur phytoplasma induces
diseases in all solanaceous species worldwide, including tobacco, a
good model plant for transgenosis (15, 20), but also plants
belonging to other species such as lavender and celery, where it
induces decline and porcelain disease respectively. The stolbur agent
has recently also been shown to be responsible for the following
grapevine diseases: bois noir in France (3), Vergilbungskrankheit (VK) in Germany (25), and Australian
yellows in Australia (7). Since the stolbur phytoplasma is
transmitted by the polyphagous leafhopper Hyalesthes
obsoletus (15), it is likely to be associated with
other diseases as well.
In this paper, we describe the engineering of monoclonal antibody 2A10
into an scFv, its expression in Escherichia coli cells and
tobacco plants, and the ability of the expressed scFv to bind the
phytoplasma antigen. An experiment in which one transgenic tobacco line
has been challenged with the stolbur phytoplasma is also presented.
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MATERIALS AND METHODS |
Plant material.
Healthy periwinkle (Catharantus
roseus (L.) g. Don) and tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum (L.)
cv. P B D6) plants were grown from seeds. Seeds of the commercial P B
D6 tobacco variety were kindly provided by René Delon, Institut
du Tabac, Bergerac, France. Stolbur phytoplasma-infected periwinkle
plants were obtained as described previously (15). The
stolbur phytoplasma was transmitted from periwinkle to tobacco via
dodder (Cuscuta campestris L.) and then maintained in
tobacco plants by graft inoculation of 1-month-old plants. The presence
of the stolbur phytoplasma in graft-inoculated plants was assessed by
symptom expression and confirmed by double-sandwich enzyme-linked
immunosorbent assay (DAS-ELISA) (see below).
The plants were grown in a greenhouse at 25°C during the day and
20°C at night.
Mouse hybridoma cell lines.
Hybridoma 2A10 producing a
monoclonal antibody (MAb) (IgG1) against a membrane epitope of the
stolbur phytoplasma (16) and hybridoma Myc-9E10-2 (ATCC CRL
1729) producing MAb 9E10 against the human c-myc protein
(13) were used in this study.
E. coli strains and cloning vectors.
The
following E. coli strains and vectors were used: E. coli XL1-Blue and plasmid BluescriptSK+ (pBS; Stratagene, La
Jolla, Calif.), for cloning variable heavy (VH) and variable light (VL) sequences, and E. coli JM109 (Promega, Madison, Wis.) and
plasmids pUC18 and pUC19 (MBI Fermentas, Vilnius, Lithuania), for scFv expression. Plasmid pS8 (27) was also used for scFv
constructions. Restriction enzymes SmaI,
HindIII, XbaI, PstI,
BstEII, EcoRI, SacI, SalI,
and XhoI were purchased from MBI Fermentas. All standard techniques, if not described, were as described by Sambrook et al.
(23). Plasmid pBG-dAb-BIN of Agrobacterium
tumefaciens (27) was used for plant transformation.
mRNA isolation.
Cells of hybridoma 2A10 producing the
anti-stolbur phytoplasma MAb were cultured in Iscove modified medium
containing 20% (vol/vol) fetal bovine serum, 2% (vol/vol) glutamine
(200 mM), and 1% (vol/vol) gentamicin (10 mg/ml) in a 5%
CO2 humidified incubator. RNAs were prepared from about
109 hybridoma cells by the guanidine isothiocyanate method
as described by Chirgwin et al. (6). mRNAs were purified by
affinity chromatography on an oligo(dT) cellulose column (Pharmacia,
Uppsala, Sweden) as specified by the manufacturer.
cDNA synthesis and PCR amplification of Ig variable regions.
First-strand cDNA was synthesized from the mRNA template with the
First-Strand cDNA synthesis kit (Pharmacia) with primers VH1FOR
(5' TGAGGAGACGGTGACCGTGGTCCCTTGGCCCCAG 3') (21)
and VK2FOR (5' CCGTTTGATCTCGAGCTTGGTGCC 3') (27)
for amplification of the VH and VL regions, respectively. The VH
regions were amplified with primers VH1FOR and VH1BACK (5'
AGGTSMARCTGCAGSAGTCWGG 3') (21), in which S is C or G, M is
A or C, R is A or G, and W is A or T. Primers VK2FOR and VK2BACK
(5' GACATCGAGCTCACTCAGTCTCCA 3') (27) were used
for amplification of the VL regions. PCR was done for 35 cycles (1 cycle is 1 min at 92°C, 1 min at 57°C, and 1 min at 72°C), in 50 µl of the following reaction mixture: 78 mM Tris-HCl (pH 8.8)-17 mM
(NH4)2SO4-10 mM
-mercaptoethanol-2 mM MgCl2-0.05% W-1 detergent
(Gibco BRL, Gaithersburg, Md.)-0.2 mg of bovine serum albumin per
ml-200 µM each dATP, dCTP, dGTP, and dTTP-1 µM each primer-10 ng
of matrix-2.5 U of Taq DNA polymerase (Gibco BRL). The PCR
products were analyzed on a 2% low-melting-point agarose-Tris
acetate-EDTA (TAE) gel and visualized with ethidium bromide. PCR
products of the expected size were excised from the gel and purified
with a Geneclean II kit (Bio 101, Vista, Calif.) as specified by the manufacturer.
The fragment ends were made blunt with Klenow DNA polymerase, cloned
into the
SmaI site of pBS, and introduced into XL1-Blue
E. coli competent cells. Clones
pBS::VH
2A10 and pBS::VL
2A10
were
sequenced by the dideoxy chain termination method with the T7
DNA
polymerase sequencing kit (Pharmacia) and the universal forward
and
reverse
primers.
Construction of pUC19::scFv-Secr[2A10] for expression
in E. coli.
A 900-bp HindIII-EcoRI
fragment of plasmid pS8, containing a Shine-Dalgarno sequence, the
pectate lyase signal peptide (pelB) of Erwinia
carotovora (19), the c-myc peptide tag
sequence (13), and an scFv sequence, was cloned into the
HindIII-EcoRI sites of pUC19 to give
pUC19::scFv-Secr[S8]. The SalI-XhoI
fragment encoding VL2A10 from
pBS::VL2A10 and the
PstI-BstEII fragment encoding VH2A10
from pBS::VH2A10 were ligated into the
SalI-XhoI and PstI-BstEII
sites of pUC19::scFv-Secr[S8], respectively, to replace the
original VH and VL fragments of the scFv contained in this plasmid. The
resulting plasmid, pUC19::scFv-Secr[2A10], is shown in Fig.
1A. For control experiments, a similar
construction in which the scFv gene was cloned in the reverse
orientation was made in pUC18 and called
pINV::scFv-Secr[2A10].

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FIG. 1.
(A) Plasmid pUC19::scFv-Secr[2A10] used for
expression of the scFv in E. coli. (B) Plasmid
35-pel-scFv[2A10] used to transform tobacco plants with A. tumefaciens. NOS terminator, nopaline synthase transcription
terminator; Npt II, neomycin phosphotransferase II gene.
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Construction of 35-pel-scFv[2A10] for expression in tobacco
plants.
The HindIII-EcoRI fragment of
pUC19 containing the scFv[2A10] construction was modified to
introduce XbaI and SalI sites at the 5' and 3'
ends, respectively. For that purpose, mutagenesis by PCR was performed
with Pfu DNA polymerase (Stratagene) with primers XBA
(5' TCTAGACTCGAAGCTTGCATGC 3') and SAL (5'
GTCGACGAATTCGAGCTGG 3'). Twenty-five cycles of PCR were allowed
to take place under the conditions described above. The PCR products
were digested with XbaI and SalI and cloned into
plasmid pBG-dAb-BIN that had been linearized with the same enzymes.
This produced plasmid 35-pel-scFv[2A10] (Fig. 1B), which was used for
plant transformation.
Expression of scFv[2A10] in E. coli.
E. coli
JM109 cells transfected with pUC19::scFv-Secr[2A10] were
grown at 30°C on a shaker overnight in 1 volume of Luria-Bertani medium (23) containing 120 mM glucose and 100 µM
ampicillin. The cells were pelleted, washed twice in 1 volume of 50 mM
NaCl, resuspended in 1 volume of Luria-Bertani medium containing 100 µM ampicillin and 1 mM IPTG
(isopropyl-
-D-thiogalactopyranoside), and incubated for
3 h at 30°C. The periplasmic and osmotic shock fractions of
E. coli cells were obtained by a method derived from that of
Dübel et al. (11). The cells were pelleted at
6,200 × g for 10 min at 4°C, the pellet was
resuspended in 1/10 volume of the original culture in a buffer
containing 50 mM Tris-HCl (pH 8.0), 20% (wt/vol) sucrose, and 1 mM
EDTA and left for 30 min on ice with occasional shaking. After
centrifugation, the supernatant representing the enriched periplasmic
fraction was stored at 4°C. The bacterial pellet was resuspended by
vortexing in 1/10 of the original culture volume in a buffer containing 5 mM MgSO4 and incubated for 30 min on ice with occasional
shaking. After centrifugation at 6,200 × g for 10 min
at 4°C, the supernatant representing the osmotic shock fraction was
stored at 4°C. The E. coli periplasmic and osmotic shock
fractions were analyzed by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel
electrophoresis (15% acrylamide) with a 1.5-mm-thick gel in a V15.17
vertical gel electrophoresis apparatus (Gibco BRL). After separation,
the protein bands were transferred to a nitrocellulose membrane
(Amersham, Little Chalfont, United Kingdom) with a horizontal
electrophoretic transfer system (Biolyon, Dardilly, France). The
transblotted membrane was probed with the 9E10 anti-c-Myc antibody,
washed, and incubated with rabbit anti-mouse IgG labelled with alkaline
phosphatase (Sigma, Saint Louis, Mo.) as specified by the manufacturer.
Nitroblue tetrazolium and 5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indolylphosphate
p-toluidine (Boehringer GmbH, Mannheim, Germany) were used
as substrates.
Plant transformation.
A. tumefaciens LB4404 was
electroporated with 35-pel-scFv[2A10] plasmid as specified previously
(12). Transformation of leaf disks of P B D6 tobacco plants
and regeneration were done as described previously (10).
Analysis of transgenic plants.
Genomic DNA was extracted
from fresh leaves with a DNeasy plant mini kit (Qiagen S.A.). The
presence of the transgene was demonstrated by PCR amplification with
BIS (5' CTGAGCGGATAACAATTTCAC 3') and BIR (5'
GACCGGCAACAGGATTCAATC 3') primers for 35 cycles (1 cycle is 1 min
at 93°C, 1 min at 58°C, and 1 min at 72°C) from 400 ng of plant
DNA. Amplified products were analyzed on 1% agarose gels.
Northern blots.
Total RNA was isolated from tobacco leaf
tissue with the RNeasy mini kit (Qiagen S.A.). RNA (10 µg) was
separated in 1% formaldehyde-agarose gel and blotted onto a
nitrocellulose membrane (Hybond-C extra; Amersham). The blot was
hybridized with the 902-bp HindIII-EcoRI fragment from pUC19::scFv-Secr[2A10], purified by the
Geneclean II kit (Bio 101), and labelled with
[
-32P]dATP by the random-priming procedure (random
primers DNA labeling system; Gibco BRL).
Immunofluorescence.
The immunofluorescence (IF) method
described previously (16) for the detection of the stolbur
phytoplasma on plant sections was used with the following modifications
to test the reaction of the scFv produced by E. coli or
tobacco plants with the phytoplasma.
For the
E. coli-produced scFv, sections from healthy or
stolbur phytoplasma-infected plants were incubated for 30 min at room
temperature with the periplasmic or osmotic shock fractions obtained
as
described above. After being washed with phosphate-buffered
saline
containing 0.05% Tween 20 (PBS-Tween), they were incubated
with
hybridoma supernatant 9E10 for 30 min at room temperature.
After a
second wash with PBS-Tween, the sections were incubated
with anti-mouse
IgG-fluorescein isothiocyanate conjugate (Sanofi
Diagnostic Pasteur,
Marnes la Coquette, France) as specified by
the
manufacturer.
For scFv produced by tobacco plants, 1 g of a 2-month-old tobacco
leaf was ground into 2 ml of PBS-Tween and filtered through
cheesecloth. The filtrate was incubated for 30 min with sections
of
healthy or stolbur phytoplasma-infected plants and then processed
as
described above. Similar extracts from normal tobacco leaves
were used
as controls. IF reactions in which the scFv or MAb 9E10
was omitted
were also
performed.
ELISA.
DAS-ELISA for the detection of the stolbur
phytoplasma with MAb 2A10 was done as described previously
(15).
For scFv produced by
E. coli, the microplates were coated
with a twofold dilution of the
E. coli periplasmic fraction
in sodium
carbonate buffer (pH 9.5) at 37°C for 4 h. After being
washed
three times with PBS-Tween, the plates were incubated overnight
at 4°C with the plant extracts obtained as described previously
(
15). After being washed with PBS-Tween, the plates were
incubated
with 2 µg of alkaline phosphatase-labelled 2A10 IgG (Sanofi
Diagnostic
Pasteur) per ml for 4 h at 37°C. The alkaline
phosphatase activity
was revealed with
p-nitrophenyl
phosphate at 1 mg/ml in substrate
buffer. The optical density at 405 nm
was measured after a 1-h
incubation at room
temperature.
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RESULTS |
Amplification of the VH and VL regions of IgG 2A10 and construction
of the scFv.
When the cDNA synthesized from hybridoma 2A10 mRNAs
was amplified by PCR with universal primers for mouse IgG VH and VL
regions, a 340-bp band was obtained for each PCR (Fig.
2, lanes 2 and 3). These amplified DNAs
were cloned, sequenced, and shown to correspond to the VH and VL
regions of mouse Igs.

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FIG. 2.
Agarose gel electrophoresis of the DNA amplified with
primers pairs VH1FOR and VH1BACK (lanes 1 and 2) and VK2FOR and VK2BACK
(lanes 3 and 4) from water (lanes 1 and 3) or cDNAs corresponding to
the H (lane 2) and L (lane 4) IgG chains. M, 1-kb ladder (Gibco BRL).
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The VH and VL DNA fragments were then linked with the flexible peptide
(Gly
4 Ser)
3 sequence as described in Materials
and
Methods. At each step, the sequences of the various clones were
determined and compared to the initial sequences obtained for
the VH
and VL fragments to verify that the construction was in
frame.
Cloning and expression of the scFv gene in E. coli.
The
scFv construct was cloned in pUC19 between the leader sequence
pelB of Erwinia carotovora and a tag sequence
coding for the 11-amino-acid product of the c-myc oncogene,
under the control of the lacZ promoter. The expression of
the construct is shown in Fig. 3, where
E. coli total proteins (lanes 4 to 6) or periplasmic proteins (lanes 1 to 3) have been separated and probed with MAb 9E10,
which is specific for the tag peptide. A protein of about 30 kDa, in
agreement with the size of the scFv DNA, could be seen in lanes 3 and 4 corresponding to the periplasmic and total protein fractions of
transformed E. coli cells. No proteins could be revealed by
MAb 9E10 in nontransformed E. coli cells (lanes 1 and 6) or in E. coli cells transformed with a plasmid in which the
scFv gene was cloned in the reverse orientation (lanes 2 and 5).

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FIG. 3.
Western blot analysis with antibody 9E10 of the
periplasmic (lanes 1 through 3) and total (lanes 4 through 6) proteins
of nontransformed E. coli cells (lanes 1 and 6), E. coli cells transformed with pINV::scFv-Secr[2A10]
(lanes 2 and 5), and E. coli cells transformed with
pUC19::scFv-Secr[2A10] (lanes 3 and 4). M, Rainbow protein
molecular mass marker (Amersham).
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Antigen-binding activity of the secreted scFv.
To verify the
reactivity of the E. coli-expressed scFv versus the stolbur
phytoplasma antigen, IF and ELISA reactions have been carried out. As
shown in Fig. 4, a strong green
fluorescence was observed in the phloem tissue of stolbur
phytoplasma-infected periwinkle plants incubated with the E. coli-produced scFv (Fig. 4A), while only the yellow-green
autofluorescence of the xylem tissue, but no fluorescence in the
phloem, was observed on the healthy sections (Fig. 4B). The intensity
of the scFv-induced IF reaction was similar to that obtained with the
native IgG from hybridoma supernatant 2A10 (Fig. 4C). No fluorescence
was observed with fractions obtained from nontransformed E. coli cells or when MAb 9E10 was omitted.

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FIG. 4.
IF reactions obtained with the scFv 2A10 produced by
E. coli cells (A and B), tobacco leaves (D), or native
hybridoma-produced IgG (C) on healthy (B) or stolbur
phytoplasma-infected (A, C, and D) midrib sections. P, phloem; X,
xylem. Magnification, ×1,075.
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Similarly, when
E. coli-expressed scFvs were used to coat
ELISA plates (Table
1), the
OD
405 obtained with stolbur phytoplasma-infected
periwinkle
extracts was high (OD
405 = 1.102) and similar to that
obtained with the native IgG (OD
405 = 1.0). No reaction
(OD
405 = 0.06) was obtained with extracts prepared from
healthy periwinkle
plants or when the plant extract was replaced by PBS
buffer (OD
405 = 0.120).
Cloning of the scFv in A. tumefaciens, transformation,
and analysis of tobacco plants.
The scFv construction from
E. coli was cloned into plasmid pBG-dAb-BIN of A. tumefaciens under the control of the 35S cauliflower mosaic virus
promoter. The construct was sequenced to verify that no modification
had occurred and was used to transform tobacco P B D6 leaf discs.
Twenty-eight kanamycin-resistant tobacco plants were obtained and
studied. Table 2 shows a summary of the
results of PCR, Northern blotting, and IF reactions, which are meant to detect the transgene, its mRNA, and the expressed scFv, respectively, in the kanamycin-resistant tobacco lines. The gene could be found by
PCR in 18 of 28 plants. Examples of scFv gene amplification by PCR are
illustrated in Fig. 5A for tobacco
transformants 1A1 to 1A8 (lanes 1 to 8) and 1B1, 1B2, and 1B3 (lanes 9 to 11). The corresponding mRNAs could be detected in the 18 PCR-positive tobacco plants by Northern blotting. Figure 5B illustrates
the Northern blots carried out on the same tobacco plants as in Fig.
5A. Expression of a functional scFv protein was demonstrated by IF in
all 18 tobacco plant extracts in which the scFv gene and mRNA were
detected. The positive IF reaction given by an extract of tobacco
transformant 1A6, observed on a transverse section of a stolbur
phytoplasma-infected tobacco plant, is illustrated in Fig. 4D. Ten
tobacco transformants and the normal P B D6 control plant were negative
in the three tests.
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TABLE 2.
Analysis of kanamycin-resistant tobacco lines by PCR,
Northern blotting, and IF for the presence of the scFv gene, mRNA,
and protein
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FIG. 5.
PCR (A) and Northern (B) analysis of kanamycin-resistant
tobacco transformants. Lanes: 1 to 8, tobacco transformants 1A1 to 1A8;
9 to 11, 1B1 to 1B3; NT, nontransformed tobacco plant; P, plasmid
35-pel-scFv[2A10]; M, 1-kb ladder (Gibco BRL).
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Challenge inoculation of normal and transgenic 1A6 tobacco
plants.
Five shoots (3 cm long) produced from axillary buds of the
tobacco transformant 1A6 were excised and top-grafted onto stolbur phytoplasma-infected tobacco plants of the same variety, P B D6. As
controls, five similar shoots from a normal tobacco plant also were
top-grafted onto infected plants. The tobacco plants used as rootstocks
were tested individually by ELISA for the presence of the phytoplasma
before grafting. The OD405 of the ELISA of each plant was
between 1.5 and 2. After 2 months, all the plants from the transgenic
tobacco shoots had grown as well as the uninfected plants, were
symptomless, and had developed flower buds. However, all the plants
from the normal, nontransgenic tobacco shoots were severely stunted,
had developed typical stolbur symptoms, including short internodes and
leaf crinkle, and did not flower. This is illustrated in Fig.
6, where plants that developed from two
transgenic shoots (Fig. 6C and D) are compared to one obtained from a
nontransgenic shoot (Fig. 6B). A normal, ungrafted tobacco plant (Fig.
6A) is shown as a control.

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FIG. 6.
(B to D) Normal (B) and transgenic (C and D) tobacco 1A6
plants 2 months after top-grafting onto stolbur phytoplasma-infected
PBD6 rootstocks. The yellow arrow indicates the grafting point. (A)
Uninfected PBD6 tobacco plant (control).
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DISCUSSION |
For the first time, we have engineered, cloned, and expressed in
E. coli and tobacco plants a functional scFv specific for a
mollicute, i.e., the stolbur phytoplasma.
Mollicutes are strictly restricted to the sieve tubes within the phloem
tissues. The cauliflower mosaic virus promoter that we have used is
known to result in expression in all plant tissues, including phloem
(26). Even though further experiments are needed to analyze
our transgenic tobacco plants, the protection against the phytoplasma
infection witnessed in the transgenic tobacco transformant 1A6 is an
indirect indication that the scFv molecule is indeed present in the
phloem tissue and more precisely in the sieve tube sap, where the
phytoplasmas are located. Since our scFv construction includes the
leader sequence pelB, the scFv is likely to be expressed
through the secretory pathway. A construction in which the scFv is
cloned under the control of a "phloem-specific" promoter
(26) will also be undertaken.
Our attempts to detect the scFv in tobacco protein extracts by Western
blotting have failed (data not shown). Generally, an immunoaffinity
chromatography step is required to purify and concentrate the scFv
before Western blotting or ELISA analysis (27). This step is
time-consuming, because many plants must be tested. In this work, we
were able to rapidly screen the transgenic tobacco plants producing
antibodies by performing a simple IF reaction involving
stolbur-phytoplasma-infected leaf sections incubated with crude leaf
extracts from the transformed tobacco plants. This allowed us to select
the scFv-producing tobacco plants even before the scFv gene and mRNA
were detected.
In the experiments reported here, shoots from transgenic tobacco plant
1A6 expressing the stolbur phytoplasma-specific scFv were challenged
with the stolbur phytoplasma being top-grafted onto tobacco plants
heavily infected by the phytoplasma. The tobacco plants from the
transgenic shoots grew as well as uninfected plants did and were
symptomless in spite of the large phytoplasma inoculum used for this
experiment. This indicates that the plantibody strategy is likely to
provide a way to control phytoplasma diseases. However, the experiment
must be repeated on a larger scale, which could not be done with the
F0 parental line, since only a few shoots were suitable for
grafting. The homozygote tobacco lines, obtained after
autopollenization of the F0 generation, produced in this work, will be used for such an experiment. Indeed, in this case, a
large number of tobacco plants can be inoculated by the insect vector
H. obsoletus or by side-grafting. The multiplication of the
phytoplasma in transgenic or normal plants will be easily monitored
during plant development.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
This work was supported by grants from the French Ministry of
Education Research and Technology and by the "Pôle Génie
Biologique et Médical" d'Aquitaine. Fabrice Le Gall was
supported by a thesis fellowship from INRA (Institut National de la
Recherche Agronomique) and SEITA (Société d'Exploitation
Industrielle des Tabacs et Allumettes).
We thank René Delon and François Dorlhac de Borne (Institut
du Tabac, Bergerac, France) for providing the P B D6 tobacco seeds and for their contributions during transformation and
regeneration of tobacco plants. We thank Patrizia Galeffi (ENEA, Rome,
Italy) for providing us with plasmids for scFv cloning and for helpful discussions.
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FOOTNOTES |
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Laboratoire de
Biologie Cellulaire et Moléculaire, INRA, BP 81, 33883 Villenave
d'Ornon cedex, France. Phone: (33) (0) 5 56 84 31 49. Fax: (33) (0) 5 56 84 31 59. E-mail: garnier{at}bordeaux.inra.fr.
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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, November 1998, p. 4566-4572, Vol. 64, No. 11
0099-2240/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
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