Fortiphyte research published in academic journal

We are happy to announce the recent publication of some of our tomato work in the academic journal Frontiers in Plant Science. Fortiphyte scientist Nick Thomas was the lead author on the paper along with collaborators at the University of Florida and the University of Wisconsin. In this work we evaluated the ability of tomatoes expressing the Roq1 immune receptor gene to confer resistance against the bacterial pathogens Xanthomonas, Pseudomonas and Ralstonia. The Roq1 protein detects the presence of a specific pathogen effector protein, named XopQ / HopQ1 / RipB, produced by these bacteria when they invade a plant. Roq1 allows the plant to recgonize the presence of the invading bacteria and activates a defense response which protects the plant from disease. The Roq1 tomatoes showed strong resistance to Xanthomonas, Pseudomonas and Ralstonia in laboratory and field testing.

The full article is available here: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2020.00463/full