High Expression of the Xylanase B Gene from Clostridum Sterorarium in Tobacco Cells, 1997 Biological Sciences Symposium Proceedings

In order to increase the level of the digestibility of plant cell wall materials, a bacterial xylanase gene was introduced into tobacco cells (BY-2) and expressed under the control of the cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMv) 35s promoter. When the gene encoding Clostridium stercorarium Xyn B was introduced into tobacco cells by electroporation, XynB was proteolytically processed in the transformed cells in two forms. A large form was mainly found in the culture supernatant and a small one was found in the cells, suggesting that the bacterial signal sequence was partly functional in plant cells. The amount of Xyn B protein was estimated to be 5 % of the total cellular proteins after two week cultivation.The high expression of the Clostridium stercorarium xylanase XynB did not affect the growth of tabacco suspension cells. Here, we report the development of another way for the enhancement of biomass utilization by expressing of the heterologous genes encoding plant cell wall-degrading enzymes in plants to relax tight plant tissues....