Field Testing Resistance of Transgenic Plants

This chapter describes methods to detect and assess commercial resistance to virus disease that may be conferred on existing plant cultivars by their transformation with genes derived from viruses (1 ). The principles and general guidelines for selection among plants altered by transformation are the same as those established for classical breeding (2 ). However, the approach is different, since transformation alters one or, at most, a few characteristics in an established cultivar; but breeding creates an entirely new cultivar.