Plants rely on innate immunity to perceive and ward off microbes and pests, and are able to overcome many invading microorganisms. Even so, pathogens overcome plant defenses, posing a persistent threat to crop and food security worldwide, raising the need for agricultural products with broad, efficient resistance. The combined goal of several projects in our lab is to use genome editing to generate disease resistant plants (Figure 1) that will be considered non GMO in several important markets. We have generated several CRISPR mutants in extra and intra cellular immune receptors. These mutants possess a gain of function constitutive basal defense activation (Figure 2). This results in enhanced immunity and disease resistance to a broad-spectrum of pathogenic fungi, bacteria and pests (Figures 2,3), while lacking negative effects on plant growth and crop yield (Figure 4). All mutants are the subject of filed PCT patent applications.
The technology was developed in collaboration with: Maya Bar, Ph.D. (Researcher), Volcani Institute.  

* The resistance to severalpathogens and pests has been validated.
* Commercial field trialsindicate that several lines have yield similar to the WT background in the field, with increased fruit quality due to a decrease in quality reducing diseases and pests.