Risks and Benefits

Risks and Benefits

Risks and Benefits
The risks involved in the capsid coat protein strategy lies in transpeptidation when a second virus infects an already infected plant. If and when both the viruses mature with both coat proteins, virus particles may emerge which have an outer coat made up of a mixture of both coat proteins conferring the resultant transcapsidated virus, the ability to infect a different range of plants because such mixed infections are commonly known to occur in nature.

Other risks cited in literature are the possibility of recombination through switching off of templates, the possibility of heterologous recombination, the possibility of synergistic action of mixed infections and the part played by helper-dependent (RNA) complexes in aphid transmission, all of which have been known to take place in naturally occurring infections.

On the other hand, benefits may accrue in gene combinations. The biotech company Asgrow seeds has genetically engineered a virus resistant squash which reduces the planted acreage by half, yielding as much as it was doing earlier by planting the conventional variety susceptible to virus infections in full acreage using double the quantities of pesticides and herbicides.

Papaya (Carica papaya) is infected by the ubiquitous ring spot virus, a RNA virus that is transmitted by aphids to the host. Field trials in Hawaii with transgenic papaya plants carrying ring spot virus coat proteins have demonstrated full protection to plants from ring spot virus.

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