Increased resistance to cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) in Lilium transformed with a defective CMV replicase gene

Lilium cv Acapulco was transformed with a defective cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) replicase gene (CMV2-GDD) construct using Agrobacterium tumefaciens. Four lines were analyzed for gene expression and resistance to CMV-O strain. Expression of the CMV2-GDD gene in the transgenic plants was confirmed by reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR). When these four lines were mechanically inoculated with CMV-O, no signal of coat protein (CP) messages using RT-PCR was detected in newly produced leaves of two transgenic lines. Dot-immunobinding assay (DIBA) of CP was performed to examine the presence of the CMV in the newly produced leaves of challenged plants. Results, similar to those obtained with RT-PCR of the CP messages, were observed in DIBA. Therefore, our results imply that the two lines show increased levels of resistance to CMV, and CMV-GDD replicase gene is an effective construct that has protection against CMV in Lilium.