'Super weapon' protects crops

Nature Biotechnology (UK) reported on March 14 that researchers at the Sainsbury Laboratory found a "super weapon" in the race against crop-threatening bacteria.

Initially, the researchers extracted the PRR gene immune system, a gene responsible for detecting bacterial pathogen-secreting proteins when they invade plants, then transplanting PRR into two the tree belongs to the tomato family.

The results showed that the plants of the tomato family developed significantly increased resistance to many different bacterial species, including bacterial wilt.

Researchers explain proteins that play a key role, including in human bones and skin and in the case of bacteria that are pathogenic, less likely to change.

Meanwhile, additional implantation of PRR in cabbage plants into the kinase gene caused pathogenic bacteria to have no chance of adapting to this genetic modification in the family plants.

Bacteria are the cause of crop failure. Farmers often deal with this pathogen by spraying plants with chemicals, a cost-effective measure that risks losing the biodiversity of the soil, or mating with a tree of the same kind higher resistance.

However, breeding techniques do not help plants with immunity to many types of bacteria. Even if the plant has developed immunity, bacteria can still be modified to adapt to this new immunity.

The researchers hope that with the implantation of the PRR gene, they can increase resistance to many plants that traditional crops cannot.