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September 14, 2007
Source:
CropBiotech Update
Potato, the fourth most important
food crop, is being cultivated worldwide, especially in places
with relatively cool climates like the Andean tropical highlands
or countries in the northern temperate zone. Sadly, potatoes are
frost sensitive species incapable of cold acclimation. A brief
exposure to frost can significantly reduce yield, while hard
frosts can completely destroy entire crops. Thus, improvement in
potato's freezing tolerance of just a few degrees would be of
considerable benefit.
Although genetic donors, particularly the cold-acclimatized wild
potatoes of South America, exist, transfer of freezing tolerance
to cultivated potatoes proved to be unsuccessful because of the
complex genetics of the trait and the introduction of
undesirable agronomic properties. By introducing the AtBCF genes
for freeze tolerance from Arabidopsis with an activation control
(promoter) solely for cold conditions, scientists successfully
obtained several potato lines with increased freezing tolerance
of up to -5 °C.
In addition, Tony Chen and colleagues, who authored the study,
also found out that the attachment of the cold-inducible
promoter minimize the expression of agronomically undesirable
traits, like delayed flowering and retarded growth, previously
attributed to the AtBCF genes. The use of the gene-promoter
tandem in introducing freeze tolerance to other low temperature
sensitive crops, is currently being studied.
Read the abstract at
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-7652.2007.00269.x.
Subscribers to the Plant
Biotechnology Journal can access the full paper at
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1467-7652.2007.00269.x. |
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