POTATO LATE BLIGHT (PHYTOPHTHORA INFESTANS) RESISTANCE AND THE POSSIBILITY TO USE THE CISGENESIS - REVIEW

Abstract

Potatoes were introduced from South America to Europe in the second half of the sixteenth century and subsequently spread globally. Its most devastating pathogen (Phytophthora infestans), which causes potato late blight, was introduced to North America and Europe in the 1840s and this led to major disease epidemics with horrific human consequences. Genetic transformation is a fast and efficient way to introduce different late blight R genes into an existing variety (Jo et al., 2014 ). The main principle of cisgenesis concept was that the genes or gene elements should be derived from the species itself. One or more genes of interest from a donor plant which is a sexual relative of the target plant are rapidly introgressed into a recipient plant with its own promoter and terminator. Many wild potato species contain resistance genes (R-genes) which encode proteins that confer resistance to late blight through hypersensitive responses.