Objectives

Specific objectives of this project are:

1) to develop a biotechnological breeding tool by rhizogenic agrobacteria;

2) to optimize plant regeneration from transformed roots;

3) to in depth characterize phenotypic changes of the obtained regenerants above- and belowground;

4) to test obtained regenerants for requiring less chemical plant growth regulators;

5) to test the stress performance of obtained regenerants against drought and replant disease;

6) to monitor heredity of the introduced genes transferred by rhizogenic agrobacteria;

7) to implement the use of rhizogenic agrobacteria as breeding tool in a breeding strategy.

These objectives will be implemented in this project on selected model crops widely grown over Europe (sunflower, rose, apple, chrysanthemum). They were specifically selected because

1) they suffer from drought (sunflower, apple, chrysanthemum)

2) are often treated with plant growth regulators to obtain a qualitative plant architecture (chrysanthemum) or

3) suffer from replant disease (apple, rose)