Overexpression of Eva1 in Potato Plants Confers Potato Virus Y Resistance

Potato virus Y (PVY) is one of the most notorious potato pathogens which causes decline in tuber quality and yield globally. Some wild potato species have resistance to PVY, however, varieties with transferred resistance from wild species is not yet commercially available.

H. Duan and colleagues from JR Simplot Company in the U.S. sequenced the genes in wild potatoes that are associated with PVY resistance. A new eIF4E-1 variant coded as Eva1 was found in Solanum chacoense, S. demissum, and S. etuberosum. They found that the protein exhibit amino acid substitutions at ten different locations when compared with the cultivated potato (Solanum tuberosum) homolog. The researchers overexpressed the associated cDNA which conferred PVY resistance in transgenic potato plants silenced for the native eIF4E-1. Since the gene sources of Eva1 are sexually compatible with potato, molecular strategies can be employed to produce intragenic potato cultivars.

Download the complete paper at Transgenic Research journal: http://download.springer.com/static/pdf/859/art%253A10.1007%252Fs11248-011-9576-9.pdf?auth66=1352875769_7ade04ae131a7045c2110f97bc626c1e&ext=.pdf.