Cornell Research Foundation Inc.

Milton Zaitlin

George Peter Lomonossoff

Daniel Golemboski

Peter Palukaitis

The invention described herein discloses a virus-induced resistance that may be transferred from one plant generation to another in which transgenic plants containing a coding sequence, taken from the read-through portion of the replicase portion of the viral genome, are resistant to subsequent disease by the virus. The use of the 54 kDa coding sequence from TMV is described as a specific example of the broader technology. Thus, the invention defines a means for bringing about viral resistance in plants which have been transformed with nucleic acid copies of fragments or segments taken from the replicase portion of the pathogenic virus genome. In addition, the present invention defines transformed plants and their seeds which carry a portion of the viral genome which encodes for a portion of the read-through portion of the replicase genome of the pathogenic virus.

Induction of resistance to virus diseases by transformation of plants with a plant virus replicase gene

The present invention describes a method for the induction of resistance in a plant host to a RNA or DNA virus pathogenic to the plant which comprises isolating a fragment of viral RNA or DNA associated with the replicase portion of the virus genome, specifically a portion that does not involve a read-through portion of the gene, and integrating a DNA copy of the isolated fragment or a portion thereof into the genome of a recipient plant in such a manner that the plant becomes transformed with the inserted fragment.

Implanting disease resistance to plants with viral replicase DNA

Induction of resistance to viral diseases in plants

The invention described herein discloses a virus-induced resistance that may be transferred from one plant generation to another in which transgenic plants containing a coding sequence, taken from the read-through portion of the replicase portion of the viral genome, are resistant to subsequent disease by the virus. The use of the 54 kDa coding sequence from TMV is described as a specific example of the broader technology. Thus, the invention defines a means for bringing about viral resistance in plants which have been transformed with nucleic acid copies of fragments or segments taken from the replicase portion of the pathogenic virus genome. In addition, the present invention defines transformed plants and their seeds which carry a portion of the viral genome which codes for a portion of the read-through portion of the replicase genome of the pathogenic virus.

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Ithaca, NY, United States of America

Milton Zaitlin