Evaluation of the risks that recombination in transgenic plants expressing a viral coat protein gene would lead to the emergence of novel viruses

The development of virus-resistant transgenic plants was one of the early success stories of plant biotechnology. In nearly all cases, resistance has been obtained by expression by the transgenic plant of part of the genome of the target virus, most often a gene coding for the viral coat protein. However, since the early 1990s, there has been concern that these plants could be the source of new viruses. This is because it is well known that viruses exchange genetic information by the means of recombination, and that recombination is an important element contributing to virus evolution and the emergence of viral diseases. But in addition, recombination has also been described in virus-resistant transgenic plants, which in this case occurs between the mRNA of the viral transgene and the RNA of the genome of a virus related to the target virus. For this reason, our recent research has focused on the potential epidemiological impact of recombination in transgenic plants.