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Originally published in Science Express on 26 July 2001
Science 7 September 2001:
Vol. 293. no. 5536, pp. 1826 - 1828
DOI: 10.1126/science.1062249
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Reports

Resistance to an Herbivore Through Engineered Cyanogenic Glucoside Synthesis

David B. Tattersall,12 Søren Bak,12* Patrik R. Jones,124* Carl Erik Olsen,23 Jens K. Nielsen,3 Mads L. Hansen,3 Peter B. Høj,45 Birger Lindberg Møller12dagger

The entire pathway for synthesis of the tyrosine-derived cyanogenic glucoside dhurrin has been transferred from Sorghum bicolor to Arabidopsis thaliana. Here, we document that genetically engineered plants are able to synthesize and store large amounts of new natural products. The presence of dhurrin in the transgenic A. thaliana plants confers resistance to the flea beetle Phyllotreta nemorum, which is a natural pest of other members of the crucifer group, demonstrating the potential utility of cyanogenic glucosides in plant defense.

1 Plant Biochemistry Laboratory, Department of Plant Biology,
2 Centre for Molecular Plant Physiology,
3 Department of Chemistry, Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, 40 Thorvaldsensvej, DK-1871, Frederiksberg C, Denmark.
4 Department of Horticulture, Viticulture and Oenology, University of Adelaide, Waite Campus PMB1, Glen Osmond, SA 5064, Australia.
5 Australian Wine Research Institute, Post Office Box 197, Glen Osmond, SA 5064, Australia.
*   These authors contributed equally to this work.

dagger    To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: blm{at}kvl.dk

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