The development of a cisgenic apple plant

Cisgenesis represents a step toward a new generation of GM crops. The lack of selectable genes (e.g. antibiotic or herbicide resistance) in the final product and the fact that the inserted gene(s) derive from organisms sexually compatible with the target crop should rise less environmental concerns and increase consumer's acceptance. Here we report the generation of a cisgenic apple plant by inserting the endogenous apple scab resistance gene HcrVf2 under the control of its own regulatory sequences into the scab susceptible apple cultivar Gala. A previously developed method based on Agrobacterium-mediated transformation combined with a positive and negative selection system and a chemically inducible recombination machinery allowed the generation of apple cv. Gala carrying the scab resistance gene HcrVf2 under its native regulatory sequences and no foreign genes. Three cisgenic lines were chosen for detailed investigation and were shown to carry a single T-DNA insertion and express the target gene HcrVf2. This is the first report of the generation of a true cisgenic plant.