ELABORATING CELL-SPECIFIC RESISTANCE TO PLUM POX POTYVIRUS

Plum pox virus (PPV), the causal agent of Sharka disease, is one of the major threats to stone fruit production.
In previous studies, the use of transgenic plants as a strategy to control PPV led to the production of transgenic Nicotiana and Prunus plants expressing the PPV coat protein gene and resistant to Sharka.
In this report, former gene constructs have been modified by replacement of the viral CaMV 35S constitutive promoter by the plant vascular-specific GRP promoter and introduction of a partially deleted CP gene. Nicotiana benthamiana plants were transformed and are currently checked for transgene expression.
T1 progenies will be evaluated for their resistance to virus infection.
Furthermore, to test the cell-specific activity of the GRP promoter, two constructions were obtained where the promoter was fused to reporter genes coding for two mutants of the green fluorescent protein: mGFP5-ER and SmGFP. Both constructs have been introduced into N. benthamiana plants.
Explants were examined under a fluorescent stereomicroscope.
Preliminary results on cell-specific expression of the PPV coat protein gene and on cell-specific activity of the GRP promoter in N. benthamiana are presented in this paper.

XVIII International Symposium on Virus and Virus-like Diseases of Temperate Fruit Crops – Top Fruit Diseases

V. Decroocq, I. Carrère, I. Heinemann, M. Lansac, M. Ravelonandro

Sharka, PPV Plum pox virus, CP coat protein, GRP glycine rich protein, Vascular tissues, Promoter

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2001.550.59