Genetic engineering of crop plants for fungal resistance: role of antifungal genes.

ABSTRACT

Fungal diseases damage crop plants and affect agricultural production. Transgenic plants have been produced by inserting antifungal genes to confer resistance against fungal pathogens. Genes of fungal cell wall-degrading enzymes, such as chitinase and glucanase, are frequently used to produce fungal-resistant transgenic crop plants. In this review, we summarize the details of various transformation studies to develop fungal resistance in crop plants.