GENETIC ENGINEERING OF STRAWBERRY CV. FIREWORK AND CV. SELEKTA FOR TASTE IMPROVEMENT AND ENHANCED DISEASE RESISTANCE BY INTRODUCTION OF THAUII GENE

Nineteen independent transgenic lines of cv.
Firework and 15 lines of cv.
Selekta were obtained via Agrobacterium-mediated transformation.
Accumulation of thaumatin II was detected by Western blotting in 11 and 14 lines (out of 19 and 15, respectively). The performance of 19 strawberry transgenic lines cv.
Firework and 15 lines cv.
Selekta was evaluated in the field.
Seven F-40-I lines exhibited some somaclonal variation.
Morphological characteristics of 12 S-40-I lines out of 14 thaumatin II accumulating lines were similar to wild-type cv.
Selekta.
Disease resistance evaluation demonstrated correlation between thaumatin II expression and
enhanced resistance against Botrytis cinerea. Most of the tested F-40-I and S-40-I transgenic lines expressing thaumatin II protein showed significantly smaller areas of the necrotic lesions observed on the leaf disks.
Organoleptic analysis of transgenic fruits demonstrated sweetness improvement in 8 F-40-I and 5 S-40-I lines accumulating thaumatin II protein.

V International Strawberry Symposium

K.A. Schestibratov, S.V. Dolgov

Fragaria × ananassa Duch, transformation, Agrobacterium tumefaciens, Botrytis cinerea, disease tolerance, thaumatin II, taste modification

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2006.708.84