A novel strategy to enhance resistance to Cucumber mosaic virus in tomato by grafting to transgenic rootstocks

• Main Authors: Miao BAI, Wen-ting CHEN, Bing-yan XIE, Guo-shun YANG
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2016-09-01
• Series: Journal of Integrative Agriculture
• Subjects: Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV); graft; RNA silencing; Solanum lycopersicum; virus resistance
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095311916613308

Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) can infect a wide range of host species. For the lacking of CMV resistant varieties of tomato, RNA interference (RNAi) can be used as a fast and effective method for the generation of transgenic resistant varieties. In this current study, five intron-spliced hairpin RNA (ihpRNA) plant expression vectors aimed at five genes of CMV have been constructed. Transgenic tomatoes were obtained by Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation with expression vectors. Highly resistant generations of transgenic plants were employed as rootstocks and grafted onto non-transgenic tomatoes that resulted in the successful transfer of resistance to the scions. Using a novel method of plant cuttings for rootstock propagation, we obtained large quantities of disease-resistant material. Further, this method produces scions that can remain undetectable for transgenic resistance marker genes that may provide novel approaches to evade collective concerns about genetically-modified organism (GMO) biosafety.