Down Regulation of Potato Virus Y (PVY) Coat Protein (CP) Expression by Iberis gibraltarica Protein Extract

Abstract

Potato virus Y (PVY) is among the most destructive potato viruses and a solemn threat to efficient seed production worldwide. Almost 70% potato yield losses are due to early PVY infection. Coat protein (CP) gene has a significant function in host adaptation in most of the plant viruses. CP has become more frequent and extensively studied in PVY and other potyviruses to generate resistance against the potyviruses in different crops. In this study, we also targeted the CP gene and evaluate the in vitro potential of Iberis gibraltarica total protein extract against the CP gene expression. Total protein of Iberis gibraltarica, was isolated and quantified. The full length CP gene was amplified from PVY infected potato plant leaves and cloned into mammalian expression vector. It was later transfected into mammalian cell line to obtain the transient expression and mRNA expression of the CP gene against the total protein of Iberis gibraltarica was analyzed through the real-time PCR. Results show that total protein of Iberis gibraltarica down regulates the mRNA expression more than 90% in vitro studies.