Project
Project: Rational selection of natural and durable resistances in vegetables by exploiting the genome sequence of root-knot nematodes
Recent legislation has banned the use of most pesticides to control nematode infections in vegetable production in Europe. Vegetable growers therefore rely on the availability of nematode resistant cultivars.
However, the nature of nematode infections makes resistance breeding a slow and costly enterprise for breeders. This project aims to exploit genome sequence information of root-knot nematodes to accelerate breeding of novel nematode resistances in vegetables. Genome sequences reveal much of how pests evolve virulence and avirulence. This information will be used to design new tools to more efficiently identify and select for nematode resistance in vegetable crops.