title: Transgenic tobacco plants expressing siRNA targeted against the Mungbean yellow mosaic virus transcriptional activator protein gene efficiently block the viral DNA accumulation.
abstract: Mungbean yellow mosaic virus (MYMV) is a bipartite begomovirus that infects many pulse crops such as blackgram, mungbean, mothbean, Frenchbean, and soybean. We tested the efficacy of the transgenically expressed intron-spliced hairpin RNA gene of the transcriptional activator protein (hpTrAP) in reducing MYMV DNA accumulation. Tobacco plants transformed with the MYMV hpTrAP gene accumulated 21-22 nt siRNA. Leaf discs of the transgenic plants, agroinoculated with the partial dimers of MYMV, displayed pronounced reduction in MYMV DNA accumulation. Thus, silencing of the TrAP gene, a suppressor of gene silencing, emerged as an effective strategy to control MYMV.
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Biotechnology, School of Biotechnology, Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai, 625021 Tamil Nadu India.
authors.forename: Gnanasekaran
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Shanmugapriya
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Biotechnology, School of Biotechnology, Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai, 625021 Tamil Nadu India.
authors.forename: Sudhanshu Sekhar
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Das
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Biotechnology, School of Biotechnology, Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai, 625021 Tamil Nadu India.
authors.forename: Karuppannan
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Veluthambi
keywords: Geminivirus; Hairpin RNA; RNA silencing; Silencing suppressor; TrAP; siRNA