Expression of anti-sclerotinia scFv in transgenic Brassica napus enhances tolerance against stem rot

Canola is an important agricultural crop imparting a significant contribution to global oilseed production. As such, optimizing yield and quality is of paramount importance and canola production can be significantly affected by sclerotinia stem rot. The utility of recombinant antibody technology in plant protection has been explored by many researchers and shows promise for the generation of new lines of agriculturally significant crops with greater resistance to diseases. The objective of the current study was to generate recombinant pathogen specific antibody (scFv)-expressing transgenic Brassica napus plants with increased tolerance to the phytopathogenic fungus, Sclerotinia sclerotiorum. Transgenic canola (B. napus) lines expressing S. sclerotiorum-specific scFv antibody showed a significant level of tolerance towards S. sclerotiorum as compared to their non-transformed counterparts. Both incidence and progression of S. sclerotiorum-induced disease symptoms were reduced in plants expressing the recombinant scFv.