VYU?ITí GMO PRO SNí?ENí ZáTě?E POTRAVINOVYCH SUROVIN PESTICIDYUSE OF GMO FOR LOWERING THE PESTICIDE CONTAMINATION OF RAW MATERIALS AND FOODSTUFFS

摘要

Pests and diseases of crop plants can be a serious economical problem. There are several approaches to control them, the most common of them being the application of pesticides which in turn causes potential contamination of food products. To avoid this risk breeding for resistance could be used, but the process is lengthy and sometimes the resistance sources are not available. This study presents the results of testing of an alternative approach – the use of genetic modification to achieve the induction of resistance to viral diseases and insect pests. Gene constructs were prepared and pea plants were transformed by cloning fragments of the coat protein (cp) gene sequences to induce posttranscriptional gene silencing (PTGS), those appeared to be resistant to Pea Enation Mosaic Virus and Pea Seed-born Mosaic Virus. Furthermore, studies are in progress for developing transgenic plants expressing the GmSPI2 (Galleria mellonella silk protease inhibitor) to induce resistance against insect pests and perhaps also fungal diseases.