Biotech Updates

Scientists Use Wild Potatoes as Source of Potato Virus Y Resistance

December 16, 2011

Potato virus Y (PVY) is a notorious pathogen of potato that causes severe losses in tuber quality and yield globally. Several wild potato varieties with resistance to PVY have been identified but there is no cultivated variety with resistance available. Since amino acid substitutions at specific domain of host factor eIF4E-1 have been found to confer resistance to different crops, Hui Duan of JR Simplot Company in the U.S. and colleagues sequenced the associated genes expressed in wild potato plants.

A new form of eIF4E-1 labeled as Eva1 by the researchers was found in three wild species namely Solanum chocoense, S. demissum, and S. etuberosum. Amino acid substitutions were found in different locations in the protein when compared with the cultivated potato (S. tuberosum) homolog. Eva1 also failed to bind with the viral protein VPg which is needed for infectivity. These findings support that Eva1 could be used to develop intragenic potato cultivars with resistance to PVY.

Read the research article at http://www.springerlink.com/content/nw271tu6j8361r48/.