title: Plants transformed with a tobacco mosaic virus nonstructural gene sequence are resistant to the virus.
abstract: Nicotiana tabacum cv. Xanthi nn plants were transformed with nucleotides 3472-4916 of tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) strain U1. This sequence contains all but the three 3 terminal nucleotides of the TMV 54-kDa gene, which encodes a putative component of the replicase complex. These plants were resistant to infection when challenged with either TMV U1 virions or TMV U1 RNA at concentrations of up to 500 micrograms/ml or 300 micrograms/ml, respectively, the highest concentrations tested. Resistance was also exhibited when plants were inoculated at 100 micrograms/ml with the closely related TMV mutant YSI/1 but was not shown in plants challenged at the same concentrations with the more distantly related TMV strains U2 or L or cucumber mosaic virus. Although the copy number of the 54-kDa gene sequence varied in individual transformants from 1 to approximately 5, the level of resistance in plants was not dependent on the number of copies of the 54-kDa gene sequence integrated. The transformed plants accumulated a 54-kDa gene sequence-specific RNA transcript of the expected size, but no protein product was detected.
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Pathology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853.
authors.forename: D B
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Golemboski
authors.forename: G P
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Lomonossoff
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zaitlin
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D005814:Genes, Viral; D007113:Immunity, Innate / Q000235:genetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010947:Plants, Toxic; D010957:Plasmids; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D015183:Restriction Mapping; D014026:Nicotiana / Q000235:genetics* / Q000382:microbiology; D014027:Tobacco Mosaic Virus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000472:pathogenicity; D014170:Transformation, Genetic
chemical_list: D004279:DNA, Viral; D012367:RNA, Viral