Overexpression of an acidic endo-β-1,3-1,4-glucanase in transgenic maize seed for direct utilization in animal feed

  • PLoS One. 2013 Dec 31;8(12):e81993. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0081993.
Yuhong Zhang  1 ,  Xiaolu Xu  2 ,  Xiaojin Zhou  1 ,  Rumei Chen  1 ,  Peilong Yang  2 ,  Qingchang Meng  3 ,  Kun Meng  2 ,  Huiying Luo  2 ,  Jianhua Yuan  3 ,  Bin Yao  2 ,  Wei Zhang  1
Affiliations
  • 1. Biotechnology Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, P. R. China.
  • 2. Key Laboratory for Feed Biotechnology of the Ministry of Agriculture, Feed Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, P. R. China.
  • 3. Institute of Food Crops, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing, P. R. China.
PMID: 24391711 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0081993
Abstract

Background: Incorporation of exogenous glucanase into animal feed is common practice to remove glucan, one of the anti-nutritional factors, for efficient nutrition absorption. The acidic endo-β-1,3-1,4-glucanase (Bgl7A) from Bispora sp. MEY-1 has excellent properties and represents a potential enzyme supplement to animal feed.

Methodology/principal findings: Here we successfully developed a transgenic maize producing a high level of Bgl7AM (codon modified Bgl7A) by constructing a recombinant vector driven by the embryo-specific promoter ZM-leg1A. Southern and Western blot analysis indicated the stable integration and specific expression of the transgene in maize seeds over four generations. The β-glucanase activity of the transgenic maize seeds reached up to 779,800 U/kg, about 236-fold higher than that of non-transgenic maize. The β-glucanase derived from the transgenic maize seeds had an optimal pH of 4.0 and was stable at pH 1.0-8.0, which is in agreement with the normal environment of digestive tract.

Conclusion/significance: Our study offers a transgenic maize line that could be directly used in animal feed without any glucanase production, purification and supplementation, consequently simplifying the feed enzyme processing procedure.

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