Gene edited potatoes for reduced pesticide usage
Novo Nordisk Foundation
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
More than 20% of the fungicides used in agriculture are attributed to control late blight (Phytophthora infestans) disease within the Danish and Swedish potato agro industry and this project aims to provide strategies and solutions for reducing this unacceptable level. We will establish a generic platform in potato for translation of basic research with a first focus on pest resistance. This will be implemented through the use of the project partners recent optimized CRISPR/Cas gene editing platform including recent advances hereof. We have identified several so called susceptibility (S) genes in potato, and one gene edited removal of gene function has resulted in up to 60 % increased resistance towards late blight infection. We will transfer S-gene resistance to commercially important high value starch cultivars, which will be combined with edited up-regulation of proteins for plant innate immunity, with the aim of generating plants with stronger and more durable resistance.
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