Biotech Updates

Engineering Papaya with CBF Genes for Cold Tolerance

June 8, 2007

Papaya is sensitive to frost and its production in subtropical regions can be affected by low temperatures that occur in these regions. Understanding the mechanism of cold tolerance in the crop will help crop breeders develop varieties that are tolerant to low temperatures.

Researchers at the University of Florida and Fort Valley State University in the US are using genetic engineering and genomic approaches to determine if genes from Arabidopsis will increase the cold tolerance of papaya. They have introduced two transgenes belonging to the C-repeat binding factor (CBF) gene family. CBF genes were observed to increase stress tolerance by promoting expression of cold-regulated (COR) genes in transgenic tomato.

The papaya genome was determined not to have any related DNA sequences to the CBF genes based on results of PCR analysis. The researchers concluded that papaya may also not have any cold inducible sequences. However, they speculate that the introduced CBF genes might induce other stress-inducible endogenous genes in papaya.

The paper published in the journal In Vitro, Cellular and Developmental Biology (Plant) can be accessed by subscribers at http://www.springerlink.com/content/dv0672p947268724/.