A team of researchers from France's National Research Institute for
Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE) used CRISPR technology to
develop cherry tomatoes with resistance to pepper veinal mottle virus.
Their findings are published in/Plant Science/.
Researchers target host susceptibility factors in developing genetic
resistances of crops. Using CRISPR-Cas9-NG in cherry tomatoes, the
research team inactivated/the eIF4E2 gene/, which has been observed to
provide resistance to some isolates of pepper veinal mottle virus (PVMV)
in big-fruit tomato plants. This resulted in the complete absence of
eIF4E2 protein. All three lines exhibited resistance to potyvirus,
similar to the one observed in a big-fruit tomato variety. Furthermore,
the plants were fully resistant to PVMV-Ca31, partially to PVMV-IC, and
were fully susceptible to two isolates of PVY.
CRISPR-based knock-out of eIF4E2 in a cherry tomato background
successfully recapitulates resistance to pepper veinal mottle virus -
ScienceDirect
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