A gentle pepper virus becomes a fast gene-testing tool for breeders
Crop Improvement
The virus diseases that stunt and distort pepper plants in home gardens can be tackled faster now that breeders can test resistance genes in weeks instead of years.
Scientists took a pepper virus that barely harms its host and turned it into a delivery vehicle that can quiet a specific gene in the plant. Within about 20 days, leaves showed the effect, and the fruits did too, in seven different pepper varieties. When they quieted one gene that viruses hijack to multiply, the plants resisted two related viruses better.
Key Findings
The new PMMoV-based vector pKL736 produced strong GFP fluorescence in systemically infected leaves across multiple pepper cultivars.
A ~150 bp insert (pKL736-PDS156) gave optimal silencing, causing leaf photobleaching at 20 days post-inoculation and fruit silencing efficiencies of 90.7% (Zunla-1) and 85.5% (JS).
Silencing efficiency exceeded 80% in leaves and fruits of five additional varieties, and silencing eIF4E significantly increased resistance to two potyviruses.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Researchers built a tool from a mild pepper virus that switches off chosen genes in pepper plants and fruits within weeks, skipping slow genetic engineering. It worked in seven pepper varieties and helped boost resistance to two viral diseases.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
A novel pepper mild mottle virus-based vector for high-efficiency gene expression and silencing in pepper (Capsicum annuum)
Abstract Background Pepper ( Capsicum annuum ) is an economically important vegetable crop worldwide. However, progress in its functional genomics has been severely impeded by the low efficiency an...
open_in_new Read full abstractAbstract copyright held by the original publisher.
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