ISAAA SEAsiaCenter
Multiple Virus Resistant (MVR) Tomato for Indonesia and the Philippines Tomato is one of the most important vegetables in the Philippines and Indonesia, both economically and nutritionally. It is widely grown by resource-limited farmers in parts of both countries. Tomato production is severely hampered by Tomato Leaf Curl Virus (ToLCV) and Cucumber Mosaic Virus (CMV). Viral diseases caused by ToLCV and CMV have become increasingly important in recent years. This project aims to combine near-market transgenic technologies for CMV with conventional resistance against ToLCV to produce commercial tomato varieties with multiple virus resistances (MVR) within 5-7 years. It seeks to assist Indonesian and Philippine organizations in gaining regulatory approval, licensing the needed intellectual property, testing the efficacy of resistance against local virus strains, incorporating the transgenic resistance into local varieties, and combining that with resistance to the other virus to generate commercial multiple- virus-resistant tomato seeds. Finally, the project aims to make these transgenic seeds available to tomato farmers. Resistant lines of tomato against geminivirus ToLCV have been developed by AVRDC. Initial efficacy trials of these resistant lines in Taiwan, Southern India, and Thailand showed promising results . In the case of the CMV, no conventionally-developed sources of resistance are available, but transgenic approaches from several labs appear promising. The ABSPII will provide the major financial assistance for the implementation of this project. The countries for deployment include the Philippines and Indonesia in Southeast Asia, and Mali and other yet to be determined countries in West Africa. Collaborators include the Institute of Plant Breeding (IPB) and selected institutes at the University of the Philippines at Los Baños (UPLB); ICABIOGRAD/IVEGRI in Indonesia, IER, Mali; AVRDC in Taiwan and Mali; and U.C. Davis, Monsanto, and Cornell in the USA. |
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