Transgenic plants expressing disassembly deficient viral coat proteins

摘要

The present invention provides a method for protecting plants against infection by pathogenic plant viruses comprising administering to the plant a nucleic acid, encoding a pathogenic plant virus protein, containing substitutions in the genetic sequence which result in the replacement of amino acids having carboxylate side chains with uncharged amino acids and which have the phenotypic effect of displacing wild type coat proteins in a wild type virus and inhibiting the ability of the wild type virus to disassemble under conditions whereby the nucleic acid is expressed as a mutant coat protein within the plant. Also provided is a nucleic acid, encoding a pathogenic plant virus protein, containing substitutions in the genetic sequence which result in the replacement of amino acids having carboxylate side chains with uncharged amino acids and which have the phenotypic effect of displacing wild type coat proteins in a wild type virus and inhibiting the ability of the wild type virus to disassemble.