Expression of PEI-coated gold nanoparticles carrying exogenous gene in periwinkle mesophyll cells and its practice in huanglongbing research

• DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.104479
• Publication Date: 2022-05-29T13:40:09Z
• Authors: Junzhe Zhang; Wenxue Lei; Yixuan Meng; Chengqian Zhou; Baihong Zhang; Jun Yuan; Min Wang; Dongqing Xu; Xiangchun Meng; Wenli Chen
• Keywords: Biomaterials; Biological sciences; 0303 health sciences; 03 medical and health sciences; Science; Q; Materials in biotechnology; Article; Biotechnology

Huanglongbing (HLB) is a devastating disease of citrus, which is mostly caused by Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus (CLas). To realize the specific application of nano-transgenic technology in HLB, AuNPs-PEI (Gold Nanoparticles-Polyethylenimine) was used to carry foreign genes into the leaves of periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus) by infiltration. Here, we demonstrated that NPR1-GFP protein expression was observed from the 12th hour to the 10th day after infiltrating AuNPs-PEI-pNPR1 (Arabidopsis thaliana nonexpressor of pathogenesis-related gene 1)-GFP. Fluorescence of mCherry was observed 6 h after AuNPs-PEI-pNLS (nuclear localization signal sequence)-mCherry infiltration and fluorescence of FAM was observed in the nucleus 4 h after AuNPs-PEI-FAM-siRNA NPR1 infiltration. In addition, NPR1-GFP expression in CLas-infected periwinkle leaves was significantly higher than that in healthy periwinkle leaves after infiltration. Our work confirmed that the expression of exogenous NPR1-GFP could reduce the CLas titers by promoting the expression of PR (pathogenesis related) genes and ICS (isochorismate synthase) gene.