Generation of sweet orange transgenic lines and evaluation of Citrus psorosis virus-derived resistance against psorosis A and psorosis B

REYES CA; ZANEK MC; VELÁZQUEZ K; COSTA N; PLATA MI; GARCIA ML

JOURNAL OF PHYTOPATHOLOGY-PHYTOPATHOLOGISCHE ZEITSCHRIFT

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

Año: 2010

0931-1785

Citrus psorosis is a widespread serious disease of citrus caused by Citrus psorosis virus (CPsV). In Argentina and Uruguay, this disease is spread by an unknown vector and no natural resistance or tolerance to the disease has been found. There are two types of psorosis, described according to the symptoms observed in citrus trees; psorosis A and psorosis B. Psorosis A protects against the severe effects of the more aggressive type psorosis B. We have applied pathogen-derived resistance to create a defence mechanism against this viral disease. Sweet orange transgenic lines were obtained carrying three different genes of CPsV (54k, 48k and 24k genes) taken from a psorosis A isolate (CPV-4). Fourteen lines were selected containing 1, 2 or 3 copies of the transgenes and evaluated for the acquired resistance against psorosis A (CPV 4 from USA) and psorosis B (CPsV 189-34 from Argentina) isolates. Results indicated that these lines were susceptible to both isolates when infected by grafting, although one of the lines carrying the cp gene (CP-96 line), containing two copies of the transgene and expressing a low level of the coat protein showed a delay in symptom expression when inoculated with the psorosis B isolate.