Media.Player

"Relief of Repression" Strategy to Improve Plant Pest Resistance and Maintain Growth Rate

Detailed Technology Description

Executive Summary Plants are vulnerable to pathogen and insect attack.  Typically, pathogen or insect attack elicits a defense response from the plant. Normally, plants choose between new growth and defending against insects or pathogens, and growth is slowed or stopped while the plant is defending itself. Our technology enables plants to grow with activated defenses. MSU researchers have discovered a way to engineer plants so that the plants have robust growth together with well defended leaves. This allows growers to reduce or eliminate pesticide applications while obtaining a normal crop yield.   Description of Technology This invention breaks the growth –defense tradeoff in plants through elimination or alteration of select genes.  This “relief of repression” strategy allows growers to reduce or eliminate pesticide applications while retaining high yields.  Reduction in pesticide applications benefits the human and natural environments, and also improves return-on-investment for farmers.  This technology may also be applied to increasing production of high-value secondary plant metabolites, such as artemisinin or digitalis. Key BenefitsRobust growth together with high levels of disease and insect resistanceImprove overall biomass yields relative to wildtype Reduce pesticide useIncreased production of valuable secondary metabolites ApplicationsIncreasing crop yields through increased defenseHigh biomass yields of bioenergy and forage cropsImproved secondary metabolite production Patent Status:   Patent Pending Licensing Rights Available Full licensing rights available. Interested in licensing or joint development projects. Inventors: Dr. Greg Howe, Dr. Marcelo Campos, Dr. Yuki Yoshida Tech ID: TEC2016-0034

*Abstract

None

*Principal Investigator

Name: Gregg Howe, Professor

Department: Plant Research Lab

Name: Marcelo Campos, Graduate Student

Department: Microbiology & Molecular Genetics

Name: Yuki Yoshida, Post Doctoral

Department: Laboratory of Eco-Devo Plant Biology

Country/Region

USA