Developing Virus Resistant Impatiens

Impatiens (Impatiens walleriana) are one of the top selling floriculture crops, with an annual value of approximately 155 million dollar value in U.S.A. in 2006.  Impatiens Necrotic Spot Virus is one of the most destructive pathogens in the floriculture industry. The lack of Impatiens cultivars resistant to Necrotic Spot Virus restricts its production. Therefore, the development of the virus resistant Impatiens is important to solve the problem.

In collaboration with Dr. Richard Veilleux (Virginia Tech), the first goal of our project is to develop an efficient Agrobacterium-mediated Impatiens transformation system. We have firstly developed a new and efficient Impatiens plant regeneration system using cotyledonary meristem explants. With the regeneration system, 80% of explants produced a mass of buds/shoots per explant, up to167 elongated shoots produced per explant and 100% of shoots produced good roots within 12 days under optimal conditions. Plants were regenerated within approximately 8 weeks. The regenerated plants were fertile and phenotypically normal. Secondly, we have developed a new Impatiens transformation method. Transgenic Impatiens plants were obtained about 10 to 12 weeks after inoculation and confirmed by biological, phenotype, molecular and R1 segregation analysis. We are working on developing virus resistant Impatiens.