Late blight resistance and elevated flavonoid composition for potato improvement

我们的目标是结合两个非常重要的品质特征，以吸引土豆的生产者和消费者。马铃薯枯萎病每年给全球马铃薯作物造成约20亿英镑的损失。目前BBSRC的资金支持分离抗性基因，这些基因将用于加强疫病控制。类黄酮是促进健康的天然抗氧化剂，但土豆虽然是主要的膳食成分，但含量很低。通过BBSRC资助的John Innes中心鉴定的转录因子，类黄酮可以显著提高。我们建议使用“顺式基因，非转基因”技术来生产马铃薯品系，这些品系将抗晚疫病与增强的类黄酮含量和营养/健康价值结合起来，只使用马铃薯DNA构建。这些改良的马铃薯品系将成为塞恩斯伯里实验室和约翰英纳斯中心的一家新衍生公司的基础，该公司将利用顺基因技术开发具有新性状的品种的全球潜力。

We aim to combine two highly important quality traits to appeal to both producers and consumers of potato. Potato blight causes ~£2 billion annual losses to potato crops, globally. Current BBSRC funding supports isolation of resistance genes that will be deployed to enhance blight control. Flavonoids are health-promoting natural antioxidants, but potatoes - though a major dietary component - contain only low levels. Flavonoids can be elevated substantially using transcription factors identified at the John Innes Centre through BBSRC funding. We propose to use 'cis-genic, non-GM' technology to produce potato lines that combine late blight resistance with enhanced flavonoid content and nutritional/health value using constructs crafted only from potato DNA. These improved potato lines will form the basis of a new spin-out company from the Sainsbury Lab and John Innes Centre, to exploit the global potential of varieties with novel traits produced using cis-genic technology.