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Home >> Plant Biotechnology and Genomics >> Genetically Modified-GM Crops and Floricultural Plants >> Genes for Resistance Against Geminiviruses


Genes for resistance against geminiviruses


Geminiviruses are single stranded DNA viruses causing important diseases in cassava, maize and other cereals. Coat protein in these viruses is not necessary for infection, so that the coat protein genes do not provide protection against these viruses. There are atleast three examples of transgenic plants produced to provide resistance against individual geminiviruses:

(i) Tobacco plants (Nicotiana benthamiana) transformed with AC2 gene (necessary for viral replication) of tomato golden mosaic viruses (TGMV), in the antisense orientation, showed good level of resistance against TGMV infection.

(ii) Tobacco plants transformed with a tandem repeat of sub genomic DNA B of African cassava mosaic virus (ACMV) provided protection against ACMV attack.

(iii) Capsid protein gene (VI) from tomato yellow leaf curl. virus (TYLCV) when introduced in susceptible tomato hybrid plants (Lycopersicon esculentum x L. pennellii), provided enhanced resistance, so that the transformed plants recovered from disease more effectively than the untransformed plants.

 

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