CRISPR in Tomato

  • Ruiling Li, Alex Maioli, Yan Zhe, Yuling Bai, Danilo Valentino, Anna Maria Milani, Valerio Pompili, Cinzia Comino, Sergio Lanteri, Andrea Moglia, Alberto Acquadro (2022) CRISPR/Cas9-based knock-out of the PMR4 gene reduces susceptibility to late blight in two tomato cultivars. International Journal of Molecular Sciences - in press

  • Gianoglio S, Comino C, Moglia A, Acquadro A, García-Carpintero V, Diretto G, Sevi F, Rambla JL, Dono G, Valentino D, Moreno-Giménez E, Fullana-Pericàs M, Conesa MÀ, Galmès L, Lanteri S, Mazzucato A, Orzáez D and Granell A (2022) In-depth characterization of greenflesh tomato mutants obtained by CRISPR/Cas9 editing: a case study with implications for breeding and regulation. Frontiers in Plant Science, accepted article



Editing of Susceptibility Genes (S-genes)

  • Late blight (LB), caused by Phytophthora infestans, and powdery mildew (PM), caused by species within the Erysiphaceae family, are the most destructive and widespread diseases in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.). The control of these pathogens extensively relies on fungicide application, leading to economic losses and environment impact.

  • The disabling of susceptibility (S) genes, which facilitate pathogen infection, may provide a broad-spectrum and durable type of resistance. To this purpose, the CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing represents the most suitable and fast strategy.

  • We selected the Powdery Mildew Resistant 4 (PMR4) and Downy Mildew Resistant 6 (PMR4) genes, whose disabling has been shown previously observd to confer PM/DM resistance in other species.

  • Our results will provide suitable tools for biotechnological applications and open the way to the development of pathogen resistant tomato genotypes.

In vitro tomato plantlets

  • Ruiling Li, Alex Maioli, Yan Zhe, Yuling Bai, Anna Maria Milani, Danilo Valentino, Valerio Pompili, Cinzia Comino, Sergio Lanteri, Andrea Moglia, Alberto Acquadro. Gene editing of PMR4 promotes resistance in tomato varieties towards late blight (LB) attacks (2021) SIGA congress, Session 4, https://sigaannualcongress.it - Poster Award


  • A. Maioli, F. Miloro, S. Gianoglio, R. Li, D. Valentino, A.M. Milani, C. Comino, S. Lanteri, A. Acquadro, A. Moglia. CRISPR/Cas9-mediated Knock-out of tomato DMR6 gene to confer resistance against pathogens (2021) SIGA congress, Session 4, https://sigaannualcongress.it