Late Blight Field Resistance in Potatoes With Genes from Wild Relative

Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences researchers reported the late blight field resistance in potatoes (Solanum tuberosum L.) carrying resistance genes from a wild relative, American black nightshade (Solanum americanum). Their findings are published in GM Crops & Food.

Potato is one of the world's most important crops, but potato fields can be severely damaged by late blight. It is caused by the pathogen Phytophthora infestans,  which can cause economic concerns for potato growers. Current control methods mainly rely on the use of fungicides, which face increasing regulatory and environmental concerns. Thus, one of the favorable techniques used by researchers is the development of potatoes with resistance genes from wild potato relatives.

A three-year field study (2018-2020) in Sweden assessed the resistance to late blight in potato lines (Maris Piper) that were engineered to contain the American black nightshade resistance genes Rpi-amr3 and Rpi-amr1. Under natural infection conditions, these transgenic lines exhibited strong resistance to late blight when compared to a susceptible control group. Slight late blight symptoms were observed in the genetically modified potato lines. Therefore, researchers highlighted the importance of stacking multiple resistance genes to improve and maintain efficacy.

Read the research article in GM Crops & Food.