Genetic Engineering for Viral Disease Management in Plants

Abstract

Viral diseases are a major threat to world agriculture and breeding resistant varieties against these viruses is one of the major challenge faced by plant virologists and biotechnologists. The development of the concept of pathogen derived resistance gave rise to strategies ranging from coat protein based interference of virus propagation to RNA mediated virus gene silencing. Much progress has been achieved in protecting plants against these RNA and DNA viruses. In this review, the most recent transgene based approaches for viral disease management in plants will be discussed.

Biotechnology and Plant Disease Control-Role of RNA Interference

“…This RNA-mediated gene control technology has provided new platforms for developing eco-friendly molecular tools for crop improvement by suppressing the specific genes which are responsible for various stresses and improving novel traits in plants including disease resistance. It has emerged as a method of choice for gene targeting in fungi [9], viruses [10,11], bacteria [12] and plants [13] as it allows the study of the function of hundreds of thousands of genes to be tested [14]. It can silence a gene throughout an organism or in specific tissues [15], offer the versatility to partially silence or completely turn off genes, work in both cultured cells and whole organisms and can selectively silence genes at particular stages of the organism's life cycle [16].…”