Department of Plant Breeding, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA.
Plant Biotechnol J. 2011 Dec;9(9):1014-21. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-7652.2011.00622.x. Epub 2011 Jun 12.
Natural mutations in translation initiation factor eIF4E confer resistance to potyviruses in many plant species. Potato is a staple food crop plagued by several potyviruses, yet to date no known eIF4E-mediated resistance genes have been identified. In this study, we demonstrate that transgenic expression of the pvr1(2) gene from pepper confers resistance to Potato virus Y (PVY) in potato. We then use this information to convert the susceptible potato ortholog of this allele into a de novo allele for resistance to PVY using site-directed mutagenesis. Potato plants overexpressing the mutated potato allele are resistant to virus infection. Resistant lines expressed high levels of eIF4E mRNA and protein. The resistant plants showed growth similar to untransformed controls and produced phenotypically similar tubers. This technique disrupts a key step in the viral infection process and may potentially be used to engineer virus resistance in a number of economically important plant-viral pathosystems. Furthermore, the general public may be more amenable to the 'intragenic' nature of this approach because the transferred coding region is modified from a gene in the target crop rather than from a distant species.
在许多植物物种中，翻译起始因子 eIF4E 的自然突变赋予了对马铃薯 Y 病毒（PVY）的抗性。马铃薯是一种主食作物，受到多种马铃薯 Y 病毒的困扰，但迄今为止尚未发现已知的 eIF4E 介导的抗性基因。在这项研究中，我们证明了来自辣椒的 pvr1(2)基因的转基因表达赋予了马铃薯对 PVY 的抗性。然后，我们使用此信息使用定点诱变将该等位基因的易感马铃薯同源物转化为抗 PVY 的从头等位基因。过度表达突变马铃薯等位基因的马铃薯植物对病毒感染具有抗性。抗性系表达高水平的 eIF4E mRNA 和蛋白质。抗性植物的生长与未转化的对照相似，并产生表型相似的块茎。该技术破坏了病毒感染过程中的关键步骤，并且可能可用于在许多经济上重要的植物-病毒病理系统中工程化病毒抗性。此外，由于转移的编码区是从目标作物中的基因而不是从远缘物种中修饰的，因此普通大众可能更容易接受这种方法的“基因内”性质。
