Growth performance of transgenic groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) plants engineered for resistance against tobacco streak virus

Peanut stem necrosis disease (PSND) caused by Tobacco streak virus (TSV) is one of the most detrimental diseases affecting groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) in India. In order to develop engineered resistance against TSV based on RNA-interference, recently we transformed groundnut (cv. TMV-7) with a gene construct encoding the hairpin RNA (hpRNA) of TSV-coat protein (CP) gene sequence using Agrobacterium tumefaciens- mediated transformation method. In this study, T1 generation groundnut plants were evaluated for their growth and yield parameters under greenhouse conditions. The presence of the CP gene in the T1 generation plants was confirmed by PCR. The expected 421-bp band was generated by PCR amplification from genomic DNA of all transgenic plants tested indicating the presence of the CP gene in these plants. The mean plant height, number of pods per plant, number of kernels per plant, pod yield and oil content of transgenic plants did not significantly differ from that of non-transgenic wild type plants. These results indicate that transformation of groundnut with inverted repeat of CP gene of TSV and antibiotic marker genes did not affect the plant growth and oil content of transgenic plants.