• UCO will be leader of WP2 (Intragenic Strawberry).

The general objective of WP2 is to obtain GMO-free strawberry plants with enhanced fruit pathogen resistance through the stable expression of FaWRKY1-RNAi and FaNPR3.1-RNAi sequence structures driven by FaAAT2 and FaDOF2 promoters, and the natural MdMYB10 selectable gene in Fragaria x ananassa cultivars.

• UCO will participate in the overall activities as follow:

- WP2 (Intragenic Strawberry): Main coordinator and as task leader of WP2.1 (to obtain A. tumefaciens plasmid constructs), WP2.2 (to obtain FaATT2 and FaDOF2 promoters::GFP fusion and perform transient expression experiments in strawberry fruit) and WP2.3 (to obtain stable strawberry lines expressing all the constructs). Also , UCO will participate in task WP2.4 (susceptibility test of selected intragenic strawberry lines) leadered by UNIBO.

- WP3 (RNAi as Protection Tool): UCO will participate in all tasks and will be will be task leader of WP3.1 (design manager for hairpin gene constructs for the defence against specific fungal pathogens)

The general objective of WP3 is to design and create hairpin gene constructs targeting specific gene sequences belonging to three fungal pathogens (B. cinerea, C. gloeosporiodides, P. aphanis) to produce new dsRNA expressing resistant plants (HIGS) and dsRNA molecules to be test on strawberry plant, by spray-induced gene silencing (SIGS), for their antimicrobial properties.

- WP4 (Socio-economic studies): UCO will participate in all tasks, for supporting activity to socio-economic analysis

- WP5 (Dissemination, communication and exploitation): UCO will participate in all tasks contributing to all the dissemination, communication, exploitation activities, and annual congress organization, organization of school and development of portfolio of communication material.

- WP6 (Coordination and Management): UCO will participate in all tasks, meetings and contributions to scientific and financial reports