Title : Tomato productivity enhancement by transgenic resistance development against tomato infecting begomovirus(es)
Abstract:
Agriculture production, including tomato, in Pakistan is limited by the presence of a complex array of begomoviruses. Tomato leaf curl disease, caused by tomato leaf curl New Delhi virus (ToLCNDV) is the most devastating disease of tomato and is predominant in non-malvaceous host plants. Artificial microRNA (amiRNA) based constructs targeting overlapping regions of ToLCNDV were developed and deployed into Nicotiana benthamiana through agrobacterium mediated plant transformation. The transgenes were validated through infectious clones of ToLCNDV. The transgenes showed mild symptoms compared to control plants by downregulating virus accumulation. Resistance to ToLCNDV would eliminate a large and presumably significant source of inoculum for other crops and perhaps reduce the incidence in other crops.
Keywords: Tomato, amiRNA, Transgenic resistance, ToLCNDV
