Field resistance against potato virus Y infection using natural and genetically engineered resistance genes

Commercial tobacco cultivars BB16 (burley) and PBD6 (dark air cured) were transformed with the coat protein gene of lettuce mosaic potyvirus (LMV). Transgenic BB16 plants showed resistance to potato virus Y (PVY) infection, against the necrotic strain PVY-N Versailles, as well as the resistance breaking necrotic strain PVY-N 107. Transgenic PBD6, which carries the recessive ‘va’ gene conferring resistance to PVY, was also protected against PVY-N 107. In the progenies of most BB16 and PBD6 transformants, 45% to 100% of the inoculated plants were immune to PVY infection. The rest of the plants were tolerant, with atypical attenuated non necrotic symptoms and reduced virus accumulation. No recovery was observed in the tolerant plants, which stably expressed detectable level of LMV coat protein. This suggested a protein-mediated mechanism of heterologous protection.