CRISPR Cherry Tomato Shows Resistance to Pepper Veinal Mottle Virus

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.

Read the research article for more findings.