US (NC): New genetic engineering research aims to increase postharvest life of cut flowers
Although fungal pathogens, such as Botrytis, cause economically devastating diseases in nursery, field and greenhouse production of important floriculture crops, few genes have been found that are suitable for targeted breeding or engineering specific resistance.
This research is focused on expression of a naturally occurring plant resistance gene to produce plants with reduced production costs as well as lower maintenance requirements in the home.
Together with previous work, these results suggest that manntiol dehydrogenase (MTD) overexpression might be used to engineer a broad variety of plants for resistance to mannitol-secreting fungal pathogens like Botrytis for which specific resistance is lacking.
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