Plant Resistance to Virus Diseases through Genetic Engineering: Can a Similar Approach Control Plant-parasitic Nematodes?

Genetically engineered resistance against plant virus diseases has been achieved by transforming plants with gene constructs that encode viral sequences. Several successful field trials of virus-resistant transgenic plants have been carried out. Specific features of virus infection make it possible to interfere with different steps of the infection and disease cycle by accumulating products of chimeric genes introduced into transgenic plants. In this paper we describe the most common methods of producing virus-resistant transgenic plants and discuss the possibility of applying the concept of pathogen-derived resistance to non-viral pathogens.