Biological and pomological investigation of the gradual release of trangenic fruit trees (apricot and Japanese flowering cherry) in the Saran house and in field trials.

Applications of new technologies, such as the gene tranfer into plants require a clear evaluation o potential advantages and disadvantages. In a pioneering interdisciplinary project researchers at the BOKU investigate the effects of directly introduced genetic information in order to improve our understanding of the origin and development of diseases in trees. Using apricots as a model-plant they are trying to render trees resistant against the virose causing sharka-disease. After ten years of preliminary work, the first transgenic trees are now in the contained system of a Saranhouse. Task of this Institute is the pomological characterization of the transgenic fruit-trees.