Resistance to viruses

Transgenic sweet peppers harbouring a CMV satellite RNA62 showed increased resistance to viruses. Stable inheritance of the gene was observed in the progeny and significant symptom attenuation of the offspring was confirmed upon mechanical inoculation with CMV-Y or CMV-K or strains under greenhouse conditions. However, feasibility of satellite RNA as a biocontrol of CMV in hot peppers needs further field study experiments.