RNA Silencing-Mediated Resistance to a Crinivirus in Sweet Potato
October 17, 2008| |
Sweet potato chlorotic stunt virus (SPCSV) is one of the most destructive pathogens of sweet potato. The virus belongs to the genus Crinivirus, which also includes the lettuce infectious yellow virus. SPCSV can reduce sweet potato yields by 50 percent. It can also cause various synergistic disease complexes when co-infecting with other viruses, including sweet potato feathery mottle virus (SPFMV). Scientists from the International Potato Center, University of Helsinki and Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences developed genetically modified sweet potato varieties with increased resistance to SPCSV.
The transgenic lines were generated by inserting an intron-spliced hairpin construct targeting the replicase encoding sequences of SPCSV and SPFMV. Replicase is an enzyme necessary for the replication of the virus’ genome. Several transgenic lines exhibited mild or no symptoms following viral infection, with significant reduction in SPCSV accumulation. However, the high levels of resistance to accumulation of SPCSV could not prevent the development of synergistic sweet potato virus disease in those transgenic plants also infected with SPFMV.
The paper published by the journal Molecular Plant Pathology is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1364-3703.2008.00480.x
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