News on Potato Defects and Diseases from United Kingdom

Blackleg, caused by strains of soft rot bacteria known as Dickyea, has traditionally had little impact on North American potato production, but it now appears to be on the move throughout Europe and could increasingly threaten growers in the Eastern United States.

A team of scientists from The Sainsbury Laboratory (TSL) and The Genome Analysis Centre (TGAC) have developed a new method to accelerate isolation of plant disease resistance genes and - using their new method - a brand new source of blight resistance genes in Solanum americanum, a wild relative of the potato.

Dr Jon Pickup, Head of Virology & Zoology at Science & Advice for Scottish Agriculture (SASA) will lead on one of three AHDB Potatoes Fellowship Awards, specifically seeking to secure critical potato nematology expertise for the future.

Researchers in the United Kingdom aim for a new commercial potato that resists many of the worst vulnerabilities of potato crops around the world.

Potato growers and agronomists in he United Kingdom will be better prepared to cope with more aggressive blight strains this season, with a new BlightCast warning tailored to focus on infections now typically occurring earlier in the season at cooler temperatures.

Experts from the UK and India are working together to identify and develop novel environmentally-sustainable strategies to control plant pests, known as plant-parasitic nematodes to ensure global food production and security.

Researchers at the Universities of Dundee and Aberdeen have made a breakthrough in understanding how the microbial spores which cause potato blight are so effective at infecting plants.

In Northern Ireland, the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute and CAFRE, Greenmount Campus has issued the first potato blight warning for 2014.

In the United Kingdom, many potato crops are now emerging well - straight into conditions that pose a high risk of blight.

El número de diferentes tipos de plagas que destruyen las cosechas en el mundo en desarrollo podría ser muy superior a lo que se conoce, lo que estaría contribuyendo aún más a mermar las cosechas en países que son grandes productores de alimentos, dicen investigadores.

Avoid bruising at potato harvest by managing moisture levels pre-desiccation is the advice from Hutchinsons Root Crop Technical manager, Darryl Shailes.

The UK government has stepped up its efforts to control the potato disease ring rot.

This week , the potato variety Sarpo Mira was named Plant of the week in the British Newspaper "The Guardian"

No sooner does the risk of importing exotic diseases such as dickeya in seed potatoes appear to be receding than another potential source of harm to the health of the UK crop has reared its head.

While recent rain should help boost protective soil intake by harvesters, the risk of potato bruising remains high, potato agronomists and machinery makers are warning.

Plant breeding business KWS marked its formal entry into potato breeding in the UK last week, with a demonstration of up-and-coming varieties and an outline of its key breeding objectives for the potato crop.

Researchers led by Professor Bruce Fitt, now at the University of Hertfordshire, have used modern DNA techniques on late nineteenth-century potatoes to show how the potato blight may have survived between cropping seasons after the Irish potato famine ...

The Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute and CAFRE, Greenmount Campus have issued a further potato blight warning.