The helper component proteinase cistron of Potato virus Y induces hypersensitivity and resistance in Potato genotypes carrying dominant resistance genes on chromosome IV.

The Nc(tbr) and Ny(tbr) genes in Solanum tuberosum determine hypersensitive reactions, characterized by necrotic reactions and restriction of the virus systemic movement, toward isolates belonging to clade C and clade O of Potato virus Y (PVY), respectively. We describe a new resistance from S. sparsipilum which possesses the same phenotype and specificity as Nc(tbr) and is controlled by a dominant gene designated Nc(spl). Nc(spl) maps on potato chromosome IV close or allelic to Ny(tbr). The helper component proteinase (HC-Pro) cistron of PVY was shown to control necrotic reactions and resistance elicitation in plants carrying Nc(spl), Nc(tbr), and Ny(tbr). However, inductions of necrosis and of resistance to the systemic virus movement in plants carrying Nc(spl) reside in different regions of the HC-Pro cistron. Also, genomic determinants outside the HC-Pro cistron are involved in the systemic movement of PVY after induction of necroses on inoculated leaves of plants carrying Ny(tbr). These results suggest that the Ny(tbr) resistance may have been involved in the recent emergence of PVY isolates with a recombination breakpoint near the junction of HC-Pro and P3 cistrons in potato crops. Therefore, this emergence could constitute one of the rare examples of resistance breakdown by a virus which was caused by recombination instead of by successive accumulation of nucleotide substitutions.