Scientists Develop CMV Resistant Potato Lines through Gene Silencing

Scientists Valentine Otang Ntui from Chiba University and colleagues reported the successful development of genetically engineered potato lines with absolute resistance to certain strains of cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) through gene silencing.

The team used two constructs in the study both containing a fragment of a gene coding for a defective CMV enzyme. The constructs were used to produce GE potato lines out of cultivar 'Danshaku', which is susceptible to CMV. The resulting lines exhibited 100 percent resistance to CMV-O and CMV-Y strains. No significant differences in the resistance levels of the lines derived from the two different constructs. Further analysis confirmed that the resistance exhibited by the GE plants were acquired through RNA silencing.