RNA interference to generate resistance against begomovirus/satellites in cotton

Functional Genomics

poster

Hameed, Usman

RNA interference to generate resistance against begomovirus/satellites in cotton U. Hameed,a M. Zia-Ur-Rehmana , M.J.Iqbala, M.S. Haidera and J.K. Brownb a Institute of Agricultural Sciences, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan. ,b University of Arizona, Plant sciences, Tucson, USA In Pakistan major constrain in cotton production is Cotton leaf curl disease (CLCuD) caused by begomovirus (family Geminiviridae) and associated satellite that are transmitted by whitefly. CLCuD caused 5 billon US dollar losses in mid to late 1990s and it became the major limitation in increasing cotton production in Pakistan. The conventional techniques used for the control of viral diseases includes the application of insecticides to destroy putative insect vectors which transmitting viruses from infected to healthy plants and by breeding for resistance against viruses. Another approach that now used widely is production of transgenic plants using RNAi technique to induce resistance to viruses. RNAi is a specific mechanism that involves gene silencing by degradation of target transcripts. Hairpin (hp) RNAi construct containing viral sequence in sense and anti-sense direction separated by intron is used for plant transformation. We have used this strategy to control CLCuD by targeting the vital and conserved regions of begomovirus/satellite genome responsible for the disease. To generate broad spectrum resistance in cotton three RNAi constructs against begomoviruses/satellites are developed and the co-inoculation of these RNAi constructs along with cotton leaf curl virus-complex in model plant Nicotiana benthamiana, revealed that the technique significantly decreased the virus/satellite accumulation.These constructs are under process of transformation in cotton to generate broad spectrum resistance against viruses/satellites.