Objective
The main objective of the research is to Clone, determine the nucleotide sequence, and express in transgenic plants the genes of higher plants coding for proteins binding specifically 2'-5' oligoadenylates (2-5A), in order to investigate their role in defense. They are probably involved in plant response against viral attack, and overexpression of these proteins in transgenic plants, alone or together with 2-5A synthetase, might confer resistance to viruses. The mammalian enzyme has already expressed in higher plants by the project proposers. Tomato and Arabidopsis CDNA (and genomic) libraries will be obtained from other laboratories involved in the network.
The second aim of the proposal is to construct plants which display tolerance to virus infections, using cDNAs of plant 2-5A-binding proteins, isolated from tomato and/or Arabidopsis. In this way it may be possible to obtain transgenic plants which are simultaneously protected against many different plant viruses. This is of special interest with some important crop plants such as tomato and potato, which suffer from simultaneous infections of many different kinds of viruses or viroids.
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
CSC - Cost-sharing contractsCoordinator
31326 AUREVILLE
France