Breeding of Vegetable, Spice and Tuber Crops

Isolation of useful genes

• Before the means to transfer the gene (trait) into a recipient plant being established, the trait or gene of interest has to be identified and isolated.
• AVRDC scientists have identified several strains of bacteria isolated from field soils and plant roots, which have strong inhibitory effects of Fusarium wilt pathogen and other fungi.
• Genomic libraries have been constructed from the two bacteria, and transformants from these libraries are presently being screened for antifungal genes.
• Another bacteria has also been identified to possess an inhibitory effect on fusarium wilt pathogen as well as chitinolytic activity, i.e., the digestion of the major component of fungal cell wall, chitin.
• The chitinase gene from this bacterium is also in the process of being cloned.
• Although both mungbean and vegetable soybean are rich in proteins, their nutritional values are low due to low sulfur-containing amino acids.
• Among AVRDC's mungbean and soybean germplasm collection, there are no accessions with significant levels of sulfur-rich proteins. In cooperative project with the University of Hawaii, AVRDC is attempting to introduce the cloned cDNA encoding the 2S proteins from paradise nuts for protein quality improvement in mungbean and vegetable soybean.