TOBAMOVIRUS COAT PROTEINS - ELICITORS OF THE HYPERSENSITIVE RESPONSE IN SOLANUM-MELONGENA (EGGPLANT)

Solanum melongena (eggplant) exhibits a hypersensitive response (HR) w hen infected with tobacco mosaic tobamovirus (TMV). In contrast, a TR; IV mutant unable to express coat protein (CP) did not elicit the HR, w hile a potexvirus vector engineered to express TMV CP did elicit the e ggplant HR. The CPs of U2 and odontoglossum ringspot tobamoviruses als o elicited the HR. However the HR was not elicited by the CP of cucumb er green mottle mosaic tobamovirus, Taken together, these findings dem onstrate that specific tobamovirus CPs function as elicitors of the eg gplant HR.