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Key message
The
Bacillus thuringiensis
(Bt)
cry3Bb
gene was successfully introduced into poplar plastid genome, leading to transplastomic poplar with high mortality to
Plagiodera versicolora
.
Poplar (
Populus
L.) is one of the main resource of woody industry, but being damaged by insect pests. The feasibility and efficiency of plastid transformation technology for controlling two lepidopteran caterpillars have been demonstrated previously. Here, we introduced
B. thuringiensis
(
Bt
)
cry3Bb
into poplar plastid genome by biolistic bombardment for controlling
P. versicolora
, a widely distributed forest pest. Chimeric
cry3Bb
gene is controlled by the tobacco plastid rRNA operon promoter combined with the 5′UTR from
gene10
of bacteriophage T7 (
NtPrrn:T7g10
) and the 3′UTR from the
E. coli
ribosomal RNA operon
rrnB
(
TrrnB
). The integration of transgene and homoplasmy of transplastomic poplar plants was confirmed by Southern blot analysis. Northern blot analysis indicated that
cry3Bb
was transcribed to both read through and shorter length transcripts in plastid. The transplastomic poplar expressing Cry3Bb insecticidal protein showed the highest accumulation level in young leaves, which reach up to 16.8 μg/g fresh weight, and comparatively low levels in mature and old leaves. Feeding the young leaves from Bt-Cry3Bb plastid lines to
P. versicolora
caused 100% mortality in the first-instar larvae after only 1 day, in the second-instar larvae after 2 days, and in the third-instar larvae for 3 days. Thus, we report a successful extension of plastid engineering poplar against the chrysomelid beetle.