Replicase-mediated resistance to alfalfa mosaic virus

Tobacco plants transformed with the P1 and P2 replicase genes of alfalfa mosaic virus (AIMV) have been shown to produce functional replicase proteins, permitting their infection with AIMV inocula lacking the genome segments encoding P1 and P2, respectively. To see whether expression of a mutant P2 protein would interfere with the assembly of a functional replicase complex, tobacco plants were transformed with modified P2 genes. When plants were transformed with a P2 gene encoding an N-terminally truncated protein which mimicked the tobacco mosaic virus 54K protein, no resistance was observed with 10 independent lines of transformants. Similarly, when the GDD motif in the full-length P2 protein was changed into VDD, no resistance was observed in 14 transgenic lines. However, when the GDD motif was changed into GGD (5 lines), GVD (15 lines), or DDD (13 lines), 20 to 30% of the transgenic lines showed a high level of resistance to AIMV infection. This resistance was effective to inoculum concentrations of 10 to 25 micrograms/ml of virus and 100 micrograms/ml of viral RNA, causing severe necrosis of control plants. For all transgenic lines, the expression of the transgenes was analyzed at the RNA level. With the GGD, GVD, and DDD mutants, resistance was generally observed in plants with a relatively high expression level. This indicates that the resistance is due to the mutant replicase rather than to an RNA-mediated cosuppression phenomenon.