The Plant Pathology Journal (Feb 2016)

Establishment of a Simple and Rapid Gene Delivery System for Cucurbits by Using Engineered of Zucchini yellow mosaic virus

  • Minji Kang,
  • Jang-Kyun Seo,
  • Hoseong Choi,
  • Hong-Soo Choi,
  • Kook-Hyung Kim

DOI
https://doi.org/10.5423/PPJ.NT.08.2015.0173
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 32, no. 1
pp. 70 – 76

Abstract

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The infectious full-length cDNA clone of zucchini yellow mosaic virus (ZYMV) isolate PA (pZYMV-PA), which was isolated from pumpkin, was constructed by utilizing viral transcription and processing signals to produce infectious in vivo transcripts. Simple rub-inoculation of plasmid DNAs of pZYMV-PA was successful to cause infection of zucchini plants (Cucurbita pepo L.). We further engineered this infectious cDNA clone of ZYMV as a viral vector for systemic expression of heterologous proteins in cucurbits. We successfully expressed two reporter genes including gfp and bar in zucchini plants by simple rub-inoculation of plasmid DNAs of the ZYMV-based expression constructs. Our method of the ZYMV-based viral vector in association with the simple rub-inoculation provides an easy and rapid approach for introduction and evaluation of heterologous genes in cucurbits.

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