A defective movement protein of TMV in transgenic plants confers resistance to multiple viruses whereas the functional analog increases susceptibility.

Transgenic tobacco plants that express a gene encoding a defective mutant of the tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) movement protein which are known to be resistant to several tobamoviruses were inoculated with viruses from different taxonomic groups to determine the breadth of resistance. There were significant delays in the time of appearance of disease symptoms and/or there was reduced systemic accumulation of virus in upper leaves of plants inoculated with tobacco rattle tobravirus, tobacco ringspot nepovirus, alfalfa mosaic alfamovirus, peanut chlorotic streak caulimovirus, and cucumber mosaic cucumovirus. Conversely, tobacco plants that express a gene encoding the functional tobacco mosaic virus wild-type movement protein accelerated symptom development, enhanced the severity of symptom formation, and/or increased the accumulation of these viruses and, additionally, TMV. Our results indicate that there are similar functions among the movement proteins of a number of plant viruses despite the apparent lack of sequence similarity between them.