Transgenic disease resistance

Disease resistance is inarguably the best form of plant protection – when it works! However sources of disease resistance are often limited in their action to a single species of pathogen and there are many pathogens, especially necrotrophs, where no sources of disease resistance are known. Where conventional plant breeding cannot provide a solution it is worth trying to develop disease resistance  by transgenic strategies. There have been over 2000 cases of field trials where the main trait tested has disease resistance  relating to bacteria virus and fungi. It can be assumed that the trials are based on positive results from laboratory experiments but these have only resulted in two products which are available on the market, and these confer resistance to viruses.
Our own current studies concern NAC transcription factors.

 

Selected publications
Collinge DB, Jørgensen HJL, Lund OS, Lyngkjær MF. 2010. Engineering pathogen resistance in crop plants - current trends and future prospects. Annual Reviews of Phytopathology 48: 269-291. (doi: 10.1146/annurev-phyto-073009-114430). It is the policy of this journal to provide you complimentary one-time access to this Annual Reviews article as a PDF file via , for your own personal use. This means registering with the journal.

Collinge DB, Lund OS, Thordal-Christensen H. 2008. What are the prospects for genetically engineered, disease resistant plants? Eur. J. Plant Pathol. 121:217-31

Jensen MK, Rung JH, Gregersen PL, Gjetting T, Fuglsang AT, Hansen M, Joehnk N, Lyngkjær MF and Collinge DB . 2007. The HvNAC6 Transcription Factor: A Positive Regulator of Penetration Resistance in Barley and Arabidopsis Plant. Mol. Biol. 65:137-50