France
June 4, 2009
Source:
INRA
The cotton or melon aphid Aphis
gossypii is present in most regions of the world. It has a broad
spectrum of hosts (approximately 700 cultivated or wild plants,
including about 50 in France). Among these, the most sensitive
are the Cucurbitaceae, including, for example, melon, zucchini
squash and cucumber, Malvaceae (cotton, hibiscus), and, to a
lesser extent, the Solanaceae (tomato) and the Rutaceae, such as
citrus trees.
Chemical control is currently still the most widespread
technique. However, it has many drawbacks (destruction of
beneficial insects, pollution, toxicity, etc.). On the other
hand, biological control can only be used effectively for
greenhouse crops.
Description of the innovation:
In the melon (Cucumis melo), the existence of a dominant locus
that confers resistance to the aphid Aphis gossypii has been
discovered in melon lines originating from the Far East or from
India. This locus, which was called Vat (for “Virus Aphid
Transmission” resistance), confers a double resistance
phenotype: resistance to infestation of the plant with Aphis
gossypii and resistance to transmission, by this aphid, of the
viruses for which it is the vector. The resistance-promoting Vat
locus has been introduced, by crossing, into various
commercially available varieties of melon. However, the creation
of aphid-resistant melon varieties by usual techniques for
varietal improvement remains lengthy and expensive.
Researchers of the French National Agricultural Research
Institute (INRA) led by Catherine Dogimont have isolated and
cloned the Vat gene in melon, encoding a polypeptide involved in
resistance to the aphid Aphis gossypii and/or to viral
transmission by said aphid. INRA researchers were able therefore
to create new Aphis gossypii-resistant cotton and tomato mutant
lines. They have, in parallel, defined markers that border the
Vat locus more precisely than the markers known in the prior
art.
Industrial applications:
The Vat gene and the corresponding markers can be used:
- to create transgenic
aphid-resistant plants of melon, cotton and other species,
- to search for orthologues
of the Vat gene in species other than the melon,
- to facilitate the breeding
and selection of resistant varieties, and/or the monitoring
of the introgression of the resistance characteristic in
varieties of agronomic interest using marker-assisted
selection.
Intellectual Property and
Technology Transfer:
The nucleotide sequences responsible for Aphis
gossypii-resistance and the corresponding genetic markers are
protected under an international patent application,
WO2004/072109. Recently, another relevant genetic marker has
been identified by INRA, but not disclosed. INRA Transfert is in
charge of the technology transfer of these results, including
the patent application and this confidential genetic marker.
Publications:
Silberstein L, Kovalski
I, Brotman Y, Perin C, Dogimont C, Pitrat M, Klingler J,
Thompson G, Portnoy V, Katzir N, Perl-Treves R. Linkage
map of Cucumis melo including phenotypic traits and
sequence-characterized genes. Genome. 2003 Oct; 46(5):
761-73.
C. Dogimont, V. Chovelon, S. Tual, N. Boissot, V.
Rittener, N. Giovinazzo, A. Bendahmane. Molecular
diversity at the Vat/Pm-W resistance locus in melon.
Proceedings of the IXth EUCARPIA meeting on genetics and
breeding of Cucurbitaceae (Pitrat M, ed), INRA, Avignon
(France), May 21-24th, 2008, p219-227.
Laboratory/Team:
Unité de génétique et
amélioration des fruits et légumes
INRA, Domaine Saint-Maurice BP 94
84143 MONTFAVET CEDEX
France
Scientific leader:
Catherine DOGIMONT
Contact at INRA Transfert:
Claire LEMONTEY
INRA Transfert
28 rue du Dr Finlay, 75015, Paris, France
Tel: +33 (0)1 55 35 26 38
Fax: +33 (0)1 55 35 26 46
Email:
lemontey@paris.inra.fr
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