Harnessing RNA silencing to protect peanuts from stripe disease

Abstract

Genetically modified peanut plants that carry copies of the viral coat protein gene exhibited high levels of resistance to peanut stripe virus (PStV). Fertile plants of the Indonesian cultivar Gajah were regenerated following microprojectile bombardment of embryogenic callus with an untranslatable version of the PStV coat protein gene and 3’ untranslated region. The hygromycin gene was co-bombarded on a separate plasmid for initial selection of transformed embryos. Segregation of the two genes allowed identification of marker-gene free, virus resistant progeny. The resistance mechanism is based on RNA silencing, an anti-viral defense mechanism intrinsic to all plants. Fifth generation progeny contain resistant lineages and the inheritance of the resistance trait appears to be linked to particular transgene copies.