Three processing tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) lines engineer
ed to express the cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) capsid protein (CP) gene
were evaluated in the summers of 1995 and 1996 under high levels of n
aturally occurring CMV disease pressure. One tomato line expressed the
capsid protein gene from a subgroup II isolate of CMV IV (line 11527)
, whereas two lines (12261 and 12295) expressed the capsid protein gen
es from a CMV subgroup I and a subgroup II isolate. Evaluation of CMV
incidence based on symptomatic plants revealed that only 9% and 8% of
the plants in line 11527 were infected in 1995 and 1996, respectively,
5 weeks after being transplanted. None of the plants in line 12261 de
veloped symptoms in 1995, whereas 26% were symptomatic in 1996. There
were no symptomatic plants in line 12295 in either the 1995 or the 199
6 trial. In contrast to the CMV transgenic lines, 96% and 95% of the s
usceptible control plants were symptomatic by the 5-week rating period
. CMV incidence in the CMV transgenic lines was much higher when infec
tion was based on detection of virus by enzyme-linked immunosorbent es
say (ELISA). This was particularly true in the 1996 trial where no les
s than 97% of the plants within a treatment were determined to be infe
cted. Though a relatively high percentage of the transgenic plants wer
e infected, the amount of CMV that accumulated in these plants was sig
nificantly less than in the susceptible controls, which may explain th
e occurrence of the attenuated symptoms. Despite CMV infection of the
transgenic lines in the Alabama field trials, the performance of these
lines could be of practical value to growers.