ISHS Acta Horticulturae 193: XIII International Symposium on Fruit Tree Virus Diseases
USE OF VIRAL "GENES" : A NEW APPROACH IN THE CONTROL OF PLANT VIRUSES. POSSIBLE APPLICATIONS TO WOODY PERENNIAL PLANTS |
| Author: | J. Dunez |
| Abstract:
The control of plant virus diseases started over 50 years ago. This virus control has been and still is based primarly on prevention and sanitation practices ; very few major modifications have been made in these techniques during these past 30 years. Diagnosis is a critical factor of any sanitation scheme or control programme and new procedures have revolutionized the diagnosis of plant viruses in the past ten years. Resistant plant genes have been used to control several viruses especially in vegetable crops but no significant progress was made in the woody crops. Cross protection was discovered 50 years ago but so far it has remained of limited use except in Citrus tristeza and Tobacco mosaic viruses : cross protection was nevertheless the first example of using a viral genome in virus control. Availability of new technologies in molecular biology and genetic engineering now makes it possible to consider new approaches to plant virus control : they include selection, cloning and transfer of viral copies, in the normal or opposite orientation, into the plant genome. Integration of a copy of a mild strain could allow the propagation of protective condition similar to cross protection. Integration of a copy of a short sequence of the viral genome in the opposite orientation could lead to transcription into a mic-RNA able to interfere with the infecting virus RNA. | |
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