Transgenic Plants that Express the Coat Protein Genes of Tobacco Mosaic Virus or Alfalfa Mosaic Virus Interfere with Disease Development of Some Nonrelated Viruses

Abstract

To determine whether these plants also are protected against other viruses, they were inoculated with low concentrations of potato virus X (PVX), potato virus Y (PVY), cucumber mosaic virus (CMV), alfalfa mosaic virus (AIMV), and the cowpea strain of TMV (Cc-TMV). A delay in disease development also was observed when transgenic tobacco plants expressing the CP gene of AIMV were infected with PVX and CMV, but not when they were infected with TMV-U 1 . The results of these experiments demonstrate that transgenic tobacco plants that express different CP genes have a low but significant degree of protection against other viruses