Cisgenic apples
The generation of cisgenic crops is limited
between apples, barleys and potatoes.
Cisgenesis is
useful in apples because of the introduction a particular resistance gene that
confers resistance to some diseases, for example to fire blight, which is
caused by a Gram-negative bacterium Erwinia
amylovora, one of the most important pome fruit pathogen worldwide.[2] However, the introduction of a
resistance from a wild source takes between 20 to 50 years until a cultivar
with fruit of marketable quality can be released. [1]
In Switzerland
lots of tonnes of apples are produced annually, most of them generated by ‘’golden
Delicious’’ and ‘’Gala’’. Due to the pathogen, lots of trees were eradicated
and because of that the use of streptomycin started. However, some strains of
that pathogen had become resistant to this antibiotic, and this is why genetic
engineering is a good way as a second strategy to produce resistant fireblight
apple trees.
Nowadays, there
are three methods that have been successfully applied producing trees. One of
them avoid the use of any source than the apple. Other one uses the excision of
selectable marker genes, and the last is done by the use of T-DNAs. [3]
Literature:
[1] Kost, T.D., Gessler, C., Jänsch, M., Flachwosky,
H., Patocchi, A., & Broggini, G. A. L. (2015) Development to the first
cisgenic apple with increased resistance to fire blight. PLoS One; 10(12):e0143980.
[2]
Gusberti, M., Klemm, U., Meier, M. S., Maurhofer, M. & Hunger-Glaser, I.
(2015) fire blight control: the struggle goes on. A comparison of different
fire blight control methods in Switzerland with respect to biosafety, efficacy
and durability. Int J Environ Res Public
Health; 12(9) : 11422-11447.
[3] Krens,
F. A., Schaart, J. G., van der Burgh, A. M., Tinnenbroek-Capel, I. E. M,
Groenwold, E., Kodde, L. P., Broggini, G. A. L., Gessler, C. & Schouten, H.
J. (2015) Cisgenic apple trees; development, characteritzation and performance.
Front Plant Sci; 6:286.
