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Dose-dependent RNAi-mediated geminivirus resistance in the tropical root crop cassava

Vanderschuren, Hervé ; Alder, Adrian ; Zhang, Peng ; Gruissem, Wilhelm

In: Plant Molecular Biology, 2009, vol. 70, no. 3, p. 265-272

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    Title
    • Dose-dependent RNAi-mediated geminivirus resistance in the tropical root crop cassava
    Author
    • Vanderschuren, Hervé. Department of Biology, Institute of Plant Sciences, ETH Zürich, Universitätstrasse 2, 8092, Zurich, Switzerland
    • Alder, Adrian. Department of Biology, Institute of Plant Sciences, ETH Zürich, Universitätstrasse 2, 8092, Zurich, Switzerland
    • Zhang, Peng. Department of Biology, Institute of Plant Sciences, ETH Zürich, Universitätstrasse 2, 8092, Zurich, Switzerland
    • Gruissem, Wilhelm. Department of Biology, Institute of Plant Sciences, ETH Zürich, Universitätstrasse 2, 8092, Zurich, Switzerland
    Document Type
    • Postprint
    OAI-PMH Identifier
    • oai:doc.rero.ch:318167
    Summary
    Cassava mosaic disease is a major constraint for cassava production in Africa, resulting in significant economic losses. We have engineered transgenic cassava with resistance to African cassava mosaic virus (ACMV), by expressing ACMV AC1-homologous hairpin double-strand RNAs. Transgenic cassava lines with high levels of AC1-homologous small RNAs have ACMV immunity with increasing viral load and different inoculation methods. We report a correlation between the expression of the AC1-homologous small RNAs and the ACMV resistance of the transgenic cassava lines. Characterization of the small RNAs revealed that only some of the hairpin-derived small RNAs fall into currently known small interfering RNA classes in plants. The method is scalable to stacking by targeting multiple virus isolates with additional hairpins