BBSRC Highlights Research on Disease-Resistant Food Crops
November 19, 2010| |
Crop science research by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) Crop Science Initiative has enabled progress to be made in plant breeding and agriculture that spells food security and sustainable farming. BBSRC, the United Kingdom funding agency for research in the life sciences, provided £13.3M to help scientists develop new crop varieties.
Researchers presented highlights of their work last November 11, 2010 at BBSRC. These include a new approach to breeding resistance to the organism Phytopthora infestan that causes late blight disease, a devastating pest of potatoes and tomatoes. Researchers from the Scottish Crop Research Institute (SCRI) and University of Dundee hope that in the future, a variety that is resistant to both blight and nematode diseases will be developed. Similarly, researchers at the University of Warwick and Syngenta Seeds are breeding durable virus-resistance into cabbages. They were able to determine the genetic basis of broad-spectrum resistance to Turnip mosaic virus that affects brassica crops including broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, swede and oilseed rape.
View http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/news/food-security/2010/101118-pr-disease-resistant-food-crops.aspx for details of the press release.
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