STRATEGIES OF GENETIC ENGINEERING FOR THE OBTAINMENT OF TRANSGENIC PLANTS RESISTANT TO GEMINIVIRUSES. EXPERIENCE AT CENSA

摘要

Begomoviruses constitute the principal problem for the production of tomato crop (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) in tropical and subtropical regions, causing yield damages of 100%. Conventional strategies for the control of these viruses which promise to obtain long term results have been developed. The application of trangenesis in plants for conferring resistance to virus is a tool of great importance for the development of a more sustainable agriculture. Among the main strategies developed are: resistance by the over expression of the coat protein (CP), use of interfering defective nucleic acids, expression of RNAs from genes of interest, as well as the use of antisense RNAs and short RNAs as inductors of post-transcriptional gene silencing. In Cuba, three begomoviruses have been identified in tomato crops: Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl Virus (TYLCV), Tomato Mosaic Havana Virus (ToMHV) and Taíno Tomato Mottle Virus (TToMoV), but TYLCV has had the greatest incidence and dissemination. Due to the impact on damages caused by geminiviruses and the role played by the genetic engineering in their control, the present article reviews the aspect related to the main strategies developed for obtainment of transgenic plants resistant to geminiviruses, the impact of this technology in the current agriculture and the specific results obtained at CENSA.