Effector-based Identification of Late Blight Resistance Gene in Potato

Scientists from the Wageningen University in the Netherlands, the John Innes Centre in the UK and Ohio State University in the USA, have developed a new approach to identify genes that can make potato resistant to Phytophthora infestans. Since the pathogen first ravaged the potato, an event epitomized by the Great Potato Famine in Ireland, it has been a permanent threat, and has repeatedly led to disastrous crop damage and high production costs.

When Phytophthora infects potato, a set of pathogen avirulence genes produce effector proteins that modulate host innate immunity and enable parasitic infection. The scientists demonstrated that by monitoring these effector proteins, the discovery and isolation of pita disease-resistance genes can be accelerated at an unprecedented rate.

In the study, the scientists tested a set of 54 effectors found in a large set of wild potato species. An effector protein, known as IPiO, was found to be directly correlated with blight resistance in three wild species. A positive response against IPiO always occurred in plants that had the resistance gene (Rpi-blb1, Rpi-pta1).

For more information, read http://www.wur.nl/UK/newsagenda/news/Phytophthora080807.htm The open access article published in PLoS ONE is available at http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0002875