The storage roots of cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) suffer from a rapid post-harvest deterioration that is a major constraint to their increased exploitation. In many ways this deterioration resembles wound responses in other better studied plant systems, though it appears to lack an adequate wound repair response. A cDNA clone (cMeHRGP1) for a hydroxyproline-rich glycoprotein expressed during the deterioration response was isolated and characterised. This clone proved to be an antisense pairing, coding for part of