PlaMint
Rapeseed, in Latin Brassica napus, is an economically important crop plant which is not only used for food production but also as a renewable resource for fuel production. The fungal plant pathogen Verticillium longisporum is one of the major threads of rapeseed which may cause yield losses of up to 50 percent.
Until now, there are no efficient fungicides available. The project PlaMint which was funded by the NRW-Strategieprojekt Bioeconomy Science Center – BioSC works towards a novel plant protection strategy for B. napus against this hemi-biotrophic pathogen by exploiting distinct features of biotic interactions. This may lead to the identification of novel targets for future marker-assisted breeding and possible advanced agricultural practices.