Dr. Ryan Warner, Michigan State University, $10,000, 3 year project

Executive Summary 
Recent interest in fall planting of flowering bedding plants has spurred growth in sales of pansy (Viola xwittrockiana), a frost-tolerant plant. The success of summer-produced pansies for fall sales suggests that more opportunities exist within this market. Unfortunately, few bedding plant crops are frost-tolerant, limiting the early spring and fall markets. Developing frost- tolerant bedding plants will help to expand the early spring and fall bedding plant markets.Once in the landscape, annual plantings typically require large amounts of water. Increasing restrictions on lawn and garden watering in many municipalities makes the development of drought-tolerant landscape plants highly desirable. A group of transcription factor genes called CBFs have been identified as genes that greatly impact a plants’ ability to tolerate both cold and drought stresses. This proposal outlines a biotechnological approach to increase post-harvest performance, in particular frost and drought tolerance, of petunia (Petunia xhybrida) by manipulating expression of a CBF gene. Petunia ranked fourth in sales among all bedding plant crops in 2003, with a wholesale value of $126 million (USDA-NASS, 2004).The results of this project have the potential to provide new plant materials for greenhouse production and to increase bedding plant production both during the early spring and during summer for fall sales. Many greenhouses have traditionally been empty during the summer. As fall bedding plant sales continue to increase, development of more frost-tolerant crops will aid in expanding this market. Additionally, development of drought-tolerant ornamentals for the landscape will aid in reducing water consumption and increasing the sustainability of home and commercial landscapes. If this strategy proves successful in increasing frost and/or drought tolerance of petunia, this technology could be applied to increase environmental stress tolerance of other floriculture crop species. 

 For further information contact Dr. Ryan Warner at warnerry@msu.edu