ENGINEERED RESISTANCE AGAINST PRSV IN VENEZUELAN TRANSGENIC PAPAYAS

Authors: FERMIN, G - UNIVERSITY OF LOS ANDES; INGLESSES, V - UNIVERSITY OF LOS ANDES; GARBOZO, C - UNIVERSITY OF LOS ANDES; RANGEL, S - UNIVERSITY OF LOS ANDES; DAGERT, M - UNIVERSITY OF LOS ANDES; Gonsalves, Dennis

Submitted to: Plant Disease
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/24/2003
Publication Date: 5/20/2004
Citation: Fermin, G., Inglesses, V., Garbozo, C., Rangel, S., Dagert, M., Gonsalves, D. 2004. Engineered resistance against prsv in venezuelan transgenic papayas. Plant Disease 88 (5):516-522.

Interpretive Summary: Transgenic papaya with resistance to papaya ringspot virus was developed for Venezuela. This is the first transgenic papaya developed for that country. This case will serve as test case for technology transfer of genetically engineered products to Venezuela.

Technical Abstract: Local varieties of papaya grown in the Andean foothills of Mérida, Venezuela were transformed independently with the coat protein (CP) gene from two different geographical Papaya Ringspot virus (PRSV) isolates, designated VE and LA, via Agrobacterium tumefaciens. The CP genes of both PRSV isolates show 92% and 96% nucleotide and amino acid sequence similarity, respectively. Four PRSV-resistant R0 plants were inter-crossed or selfed, and the progenies tested for resistance against the homologous isolates VE and LA, and the heterologous isolates HA (Hawaii) and TH (Thailand) in greenhouse conditions. Resistance was affected by sequence similarity between the transgenes and the challenge viruses: resistance values were higher for plants challenged with the homologous isolates (92-100% similarity), than to Hawaiian (94% similarity), and lastly Thailand isolates (88-89% similarity). Our results show that PRSV CP gene effectively protects local varieties of papaya against homologous and heterologous isolates of PRSV.