The Genetic Engineering of Two Commercial Potato Cultivars for Resistance to Potato Virus X

Abstract

We efficiently transformed the commercial cultivars of potato (Solanum tuberosum) Bintje, Desiree and Escort after optimizing the conditions for regeneration from potato tuber discs. For transformation, tuber discs were cocultivated with Agrobacterium tumefaciens using a disarmed binary vector system. This system allowed the introduction of a chimaeric gene encoding the coat protein (CP) of potato virus X (PVX) into two cultivars most susceptible to this virus, Bintje and Escort. Five transgenic plant lines with expression levels of CP higher than 0.1% of soluble leaf protein were analyzed for resistance to a challenging inoculation with PVX (1 μg/ml). We observed a delay in symptom development as well as a drastic reduction in the accumulation of virus. Furthermore, we found a correlation between the expression level of the CP–gene and the reduction in virus accumulation. Cytogenetic analysis of 62 independently obtained transgenic lines showed the normal tetraploid number of chromosomes (2n = 4x = 48) in 97 percent of the examined plants. Phenotypically all these plants appeared normal. One plant line exhibited an abnormal phenotype and contained about the octaploid number of chromosomes (4n ≈ 8x = 96). These results and preliminary data on morphological characteristics, as these are determined in the official variety registration procedure, indicate that potato cultivars can be genetically engineered to contain new desirable traits with preservation of their intrinsic properties.