Overexpression of VQ Motif-Containing Gene does not Affect Infection Rates of Potato with Potato Virus Y

Potato virus Y is a devastating pathogen affecting several crops including potato. Upon recognition of PVY, plants carrying PVY-resistance genes reprogram their transcriptome to prevent viral multiplication and movement throughout the plant. However, it is often not clear what the significance of these changes is and which genes are essential for a successful resistance response. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that a putative VQ motif-containing gene, which was highly differentially expressed in response to the strain PVY^O in the N_y gene-carrying cultivar Premier Russet, plays a role in the defense response against PVY. For this, infection rates of three transgenic potato lines overexpressing VQ inoculated with three different strains of PVY (O, N-Wilga, NTN) were compared to those of Premier Russet control. Our results showed that there were no significant differences in foliar and tuber infection rates between VQ-overexpressing lines and Premier Russet control, suggesting that VQ alone is not essential in the plant response to PVY.