Movement of coat protein genes from a commercial virus-resistant transgenic squash into a wild relative

Free access article

Issue		Environ. Biosafety Res. Volume 3, Number 1, January-March 2004


Page(s)		5 - 16
DOI		10.1051/ebr:2004003

Environ. Biosafety Res. 3 (2004) 5-16
DOI: 10.1051/ebr:2004003

Movement of coat protein genes from a commercial virus-resistant transgenic squash into a wild relative

Marc Fuchs¹, Ellen M. Chirco² and Dennis Gonsalves¹

¹ Department of Plant Pathology, Cornell University, New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, Geneva, NY 14456, USA
² Department of Horticultural Sciences, Cornell University, New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, Geneva, NY 14456, USA

(Received August 25, 2003; accepted December 15, 2003.)

Abstract We monitored pollen-mediated transgene dissemination from commercial transgenic squash CZW-3 into its wild relative Cucurbita pepo ssp. ovifera var. texana (C. texana). Transgenic squash CZW-3 expresses the neomycin phosphotransferase II (nptII) gene and the coat protein (CP) genes of Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV), Zucchini yellow mosaic virus (ZYMV), and Watermelon mosaic virus (WMV); thereby, it is resistant to these three aphid-borne viruses. The rate of NPT II and CP transgene introgression increased with overlapping flowering patterns and a high ratio of transgenic F1 hybrids (C. texana × CZW-3) to C. texana. Transgene transfer also readily occurred from transgenic F1 hybrids into C. texana over three generations in field settings where test plants grew sympatrically and viruses were not severely limiting the growth, and fruit and seed production of C. texana. In contrast, introgression of the transgenes into C. texana was not sustained under conditions of high viral disease pressure. As expected, C. texana progeny that acquired the CP transgenes exhibited resistance to CMV, ZYMV, and WMV. This is the first report on transgene dissemination from a transgenic crop that exhibits disease resistance and hybridizes with a wild plant species without loss of fertility.

Key words: Key words: Environmental safety / risk assessment / pollen flow / transgenic squash / Cucurbita texana / coat protein gene / Cucumber mosaic virus / Zucchini yellow mosaic virus / Watermelon mosaic virus / neomycin phosphotransferase (NPT) II gene / introgression / enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay / engineered virus resistance

Corresponding author: Marc Fuchs fuchs@colmar.inra.fr

© ISBR, EDP Sciences 2004

What is OpenURL?

The OpenURL standard is a protocol for transmission of metadata describing the resource that you wish to access. An OpenURL link contains article metadata and directs it to the OpenURL server of your choice. The OpenURL server can provide access to the resource and also offer complementary services (specific search engine, export of references...). The OpenURL link can be generated by different means.

If your librarian has set up your subscription with an OpenURL resolver, OpenURL links appear automatically on the abstract pages.
You can define your own OpenURL resolver with your EDPS Account. In this case your choice will be given priority over that of your library.
You can use an add-on for your browser (Firefox or I.E.) to display OpenURL links on a page (see http://www.openly.com/openurlref/). You should disable this module if you wish to use the OpenURL server that you or your library have defined.