Plant Research International (PRI), part of Wageningen UR, conducted a successful field trial last summer with potatoes that had been made resistant to Phytophthora with the aid of cisgenesis. Prof. Willem Stiekema reported the successful trial during the conference "The Future of Food and Agri", on 13 November in Wageningen.
Stiekema showed slides of a field of healthy, genetically-modified potatoes next to a field of normal potatoes which had been completely destroyed by potato blight. The researchers had deliberately inoculated both fields with the pathogen Phytophthora infestans, in order to test the resistance of the genetically modified potato.
PRI had inserted a resistance gene from wild potatoes into the modified potato variety. ‘We decided to use genetic modification with genes from the same species’, explains project leader Dr Anton Haverkort of PRI. This form of genetic modification is called cisgenesis. Next year, the researchers plan to conduct a field trial using multiple resistance genes in the potato. ‘By stacking multiple resistance genes, we hope to be quicker and smarter than the pathogen.’ Previous attempts to protect the potato with a single resistance gene quickly failed when the pathogen broke the resistance.
PRI cannot market the resistant potato, because it does not yet have European approval. Stiekema and his colleagues are calling for approval. ‘Controlling Phytophthera by means of crop protection agents leads to an enormous environmental and financial burden; Phytophthera control costs €150 million annually in the Netherlands and €10 billion worldwide.’
Haverkort’s study is part of the research programme ‘Sustainable Resistance against Phytophthora’ of the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality, which has a budget of €10 million. / Albert Sikkema
The above article was written by the editorial staff of Resource, the weekly newspaper for Wageningen University and Research Centre. For more information, contact the press and science information officer of Wageningen UR, e-mail: pers.communicatie@wur or the editorial staff of Resource, e-mail: resource@wur.nl. See the archived articles at http://www.resource-online.nl