Coat protein gene-mediated resistance to Potato virus A in transgenic plants is suppressed following infection with another potyvirus.
High levels of resistance to Potato virus A (PVA, genus Potyvirus), indicated by absence of detectable infection in inoculated leaves, were attained in Nicotiana benthamiana transformed with a construct expressing the PVA 5'-untranslated region fused with the coat protein (CP)-encoding sequence. Low steady-state levels of the transgene transcripts were detected. Resistance was PVA-specific and did not protect the plants against infection with Potato virus Y (PVY, genus Potyvirus). Consequently, the steady-state levels of the CP-transgene mRNA were greatly elevated in the plants infected with PVY, and plants became susceptible to infection with PVA. These data show that virus resistance obtained by expressing regions of a plant virus genome in transgenic plants may be suppressed following infection with another virus that evades the virus-specific resistance.
Savenkov
E I
EI
Department of Plant Biology, Genetics Centre, SLU, PO Box 7080, S-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden1.
Valkonen
J P T
JPT
Department of Plant Biology, Genetics Centre, SLU, PO Box 7080, S-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden1.
D002213:Capsid / Q000235:genetics*; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified; D017800:Potyvirus / Q000235:genetics*; D011198:Solanum tuberosum / Q000821:virology*