Abstract: Fire blight, caused by Erwinia amylovora, is a major disease of pear (Pyrus communis L.). Different strategies to enhance fire blight resistance of pear through genetic engineering are currently studied in our group. Among them, transformation of pear with a depolymerase gene from a bacteriophage has been investigated. This gene encodes an enzyme that degrades the capsular exopolysaccharide (EPS) of E. amylovora. Mutant strains without bacterial EPS are known to fail to colonize host plants. Pear cv. ‘Passe Crassane’ was transformed with Ag...
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Topics: 
Horticulture
Genetics
Microbiology