Synthesis of minus-strand copies of a viral transgene during viral infections of transgenic plants

Viral transgenes designed to provide resistance to specific plant viruses frequently consist of the coat protein gene and a contiguous 3′ untranslated region (3′UTR) of viral origin. In many RNA viruses the viral 3′UTR establishes a recognition and initiation site for viral RNA replication. Thus the transgenic transcript may contain a functional virus replication site. Experiments were designed to determine if a challenging virus would recognize this replication site on a nuclear derived transcript and synthesize the complementary RNA. These data demonstrate that upon infection by a virus that recognizes the viral replication site, a full-length complement of the transgenic transcript is produced. In these experiments the replication complex of Brome Mosaic bromovirus recognized the transgenic transcript derived from a Cowpea Chlorotic Mottle bromovirus transgene. The resulting RNA may contribute to RNA recombination events.