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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Kearneysville, West Virginia » Appalachian Fruit Research Laboratory » Innovative Fruit Production, Improvement, and Protection » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #254143
Title: Overview on the investigations of transgenic plums in Romania

Author
item ZAGRAI, IOAN - Fruit Research & Development Station Bistrita - Romania
item RAVELONANDRO, MICHEL - Institut National De La Recherche Agronomique (INRA)
item ZAGRAI, LUMINITA - Fruit Research & Development Station Bistrita - Romania
item Scorza, Ralph
item MINOIU, NICOLAE - Fruit Research & Development Station Bistrita - Romania

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/10/2010
Publication Date: 9/5/2010
Citation: Zagrai, I., Ravelonandro, M., Zagrai, L., Scorza, R., Minoiu, N. 2010. Overview on the investigations of transgenic plums in Romania. International Symposium on Plum Pox Virus. p. 32.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Transgenic plums of Prunus domestica L. transformed with the Plum pox virus coat protein gene (PPV-CP) were the subjects of three experiments undertaken in Romania. In the first experiment, PPV-CP transgenic clones C2, C3, C4, C5, C6, PT3 and PT5 were evaluated for Sharka resistance under high natural infection pressure. Transgenic clone C5, subsequently named 'HoneySweet', showed high resistance to PPV. None of the C5 trees became naturally infected by aphids for more than ten years. The resistance of C5 was based on post-transcriptional gene silencing (PTGS). In the second experiment, we assessed the effect of two heterologous viruses (Prunus necrotic ringspot virus and Prune dwarf virus) on the efficacy and stability of PTGS-mediated resistance to PPV displayed by the C5 plum. The engineered resistance to PPV in C5 transgenic plums was stable and was not suppressed by the presence of the assayed heterologous viruses over a three-year experimental period. Some PPV-CP transgenic plum clones that are susceptible to PPV, including C2, C3, C4 and PT3, display a constitutive transcription of PPV-CP sequences. In the third experiment, we used these plants to assess the environmental safety issues related to potential hazards concerning the emergence of PPV variants. The serological and molecular variability of PPV detected in transgenic and in conventional plums revealed that the transgenic plums do not affect the diversity of indigenous PPV populations. While permission for a new C5 field trial in Romania was granted in 2007, certain restrictions have made it impossible to initiate the trial. These requirements do not appear to be justifiable on a scientific basis since field trials have been successfully and safely carried out in Romania and other countries since 1996, and the ecological safety aspects of these plantings published in peer-reviewed journals. We suggest that the safety and efficacy data developed in Romania, and other European countries and in the U.S. over the last 15 years justifies an expansion of the field tests in Romania and in other countries that are experiencing the damages to plum production caused by PPV.