Russia.. developing the world’s first approach to modifying the genome of black grapes

The press service of the Russian Sirius University said that scientists have created a technology that will protect grapes belonging to the “Merlot” variety from powdery mildew fungi.

Anastasia Vizikova, a researcher at Sirius University from the Russian city of Sochi, said: “It is assumed that this fungus was imported from North America along with American grape varieties, and later became a serious threat to European vineyards that had not faced this disease before.” “Using Merlot as an example, we have developed a way to modify the genome of highly metabolic grape varieties, which will speed up the process of growing plants resistant to powdery mildew.”

Russian scientists have developed a new approach to using the Nobel Prize-winning CRISPR/Cas genome editing technology that could greatly increase the efficiency of such procedures. Its development became possible because researchers discovered that adding chitosan, as a major component of fungal cell walls, to the nutrient medium activates cellular immunity in a special way, which at the same time increases the probability of successfully modifying DNA and also increases the chances of cell survival.

As biologists assume, the effect of chitosan on grape cells is linked to activating the immune system inside the cells and reducing the production of resveratrol and other antioxidants from the class of phenolic compounds, whose molecules protect the plant’s DNA from external influences. Similar substances are found in the cells of black grape varieties in large quantities, which indicates difficulties in modifying their genome.

Russian scientists were able to overcome this barrier and use the approach they devised to suppress the MLO7 gene, whose high activity in Merlot grape cells and many other copies of this plant contributes to the development of powdery mildew.

The researchers hope that subsequent experiments will lead to the emergence of new types of Merlot and other famous black grape varieties that have a high level of resistance to this fungal infection.

Source: TASS