Natural resistance is inadequate.
Toward overcoming this limitation, we have engineered virus-derived transgenic resistance in oat. In experiments on T2 and T3 generation plants descended from the same transformation event, all BYDV-inoculated plants containing the transgene showed disease symptoms initially, but recovered, flowered and produced seed. Although all of the recovered transgenic plants looked similar, the amount of virus and viral RNA ranged from substantial to undetectable levels. Thus, the transgene may act either by restricting virus accumulation or by a novel transgenic tolerance phenomenon. This work demonstrates a strategy for genetically stable, transgenic resistance to BYDVs that should apply to all hosts of the virus.