Method of making pathogen-resistant plants by transformation with a fatty acid desaturase gene

摘要

The present invention provides pathogen-resistant transgenic plants and methods of making the plants. The transgenic plants display enhanced resistance to a variety of fungal, bacterial and viral plant pathogens due to expression of a gene that increases the unsaturated fatty acid content of the plant's cells, as compared with an equivalent, but non-transformed plant. The preferred embodiment of the invention is a plant expressing a heterologous DELTA-9 desaturase gene from yeast, which particularly increases cytosolic quantities of 16:1, 16:2 and 18:1 fatty acids.