INDUCTION OF RESISTANCE TO BARLEY YELLOW DWARF VIRUS (PAV) IN BREAD WHEAT USING POST-TRANSCRIPTIONAL GENE SILENCING (PTGS)

Document Type : Research Article

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Abstract

Barley and cereal yellow dwarf are the most important cereal diseases causing serious damages worldwide. Limited number of resistance and tolerance genes, their inefficiency and their complex inheritance justifies the adoption of the pathogen derived resistance approaches. In the present study, three types of constructs including sense, antisense and intron hairpin-loop (ihp-loop) were prepared from a sequence of BYDV-PAV polymerase gene and cloned into pWBVec8 binary vector. Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of mature embryos of bread wheat Alvand was carried out using the three types of constructs in the optimized culture media supplemented with hygromycin as a selective marker. The transformed explants were evaluated by ELISA, polymerase chain reaction, and dot blot assay using a nonradioactive probe. Artificial inoculation of plants was carried out employing BYDV-PAV viruliferous aphids. The average rates of transformation were evaluated as 1.8, 1.3 and zero percent for ihp-loop, sense and antisense constructs, respectively, based on ELISA values. Transformed plants remained healthy while control plants developed yellow dwarf symptoms after artificial inoculation of BYDV-PAV.

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