Serological characterization of three strains (BS, CS and MM) from Guangdong and one strain (HI) from Hawaii of cucumber mosaic virus infecting banana were first studied. These fourstrains were confirmed to belong to CMV DTL serotype. The serological relationships between BSand CS were closed while theprelationshi s between BS and MM were less closed.
The plant expression vector of the coat protein(CP) gene of cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) BS strain was used to transform three kinds of pepper (Capsicum annuum) tissues (cotyledon, stem and root) by agrobacterium-mediated co-cultivation. 53%-68.4% of the total tissues (639) can be induced to be calli, but only cotyledon calli can be further regenerated to form shoots (regenerated efficiency 39.7%). 70%(42/60) of the putative transformed plants were confirmed to have CP gene in their genomes by Southern blot. The mRNAs and the CP were respectively found in 80% of transgenic plants by Northern blot and DAS-ELISA. 24 of the transgenic plants expressing CP gene of BS strain showed three kinds of resistant level (severe symptom, delay of symptomatic development, no symptom) to infection of CMV-BS and of CMV-P. However, there was distinctly higher resistance to inoculation of CMV-BS than that with CMV-P in these transgenic plants.
