Gene for nucleocapsid* (N) protein from tomato spotted willt virus (TSWV)
In earlier reports of resistance against viruses in transgenic plants, a number of positive (+) strand RNA viruses were involved. No report of resistance against any negative (-) strand virus was available. An important negative (-) strand virus is tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV), which causes considerable yield losses in crops like tomato, tobacco, lettuce, ground nut, pepper and in ornamentals like Impatiens,
Ageratum and Chrysanthemum. In this virus, genomic RNA is tightly associated with nucleocapsid (N) protein. This protein helps in (i) wrapping of viral RNA and also in (ii) regulation of transcription to replication switch during infection cycle.


