ARTICLE; AGRICULTURE AND ENVIRONMENTAL BIOTECHNOLOGY Induction of resistance to potato virus Y strain NTN in potato plants through RNAi

Department of Genetics and Breedingof Agricultural Crops, Faculty of Agronomy, University of Forestry, Sofia, Bulgaria(Received 20 March 2014; accepted 29 October 2014)Potato viruses cause enormous economic loss in agriculture production. Potatoes can be infected by a number of differentviruses that affect negatively the harvest and the tuber quality. Direct and effective drugs against plant virus diseases arestill not available and control is only applied as agricultural measures and pesticides against virus vectors. Potato virus Y(PVY) is transmitted by aphids in non-persistent manner and on that account using insecticides to prevent spread of theinfection is useless. Breeding of resistant plant cultivars proved to be not always a solution of the problem because of thefast evolution of the virus strains and the constantly growing group of recombinants. In this study, we have proposed a newway of controlling the virus by blocking replication and transmission through the plant by RNAi-based vaccination ofpotato seedlings with specific to viral HC-Pro gene siRNAs. Thus, PVY replication is decreased without altering thevaluable qualities of the sensitive to the virus potato cultivars like Agria.Keywords: RNAi; PVY