Roche NimbleGen, Inc Arrays Help Unveil the Secrets of Insidious Potato Blight

MADISON, Wis.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A large international team of researchers recently published the 240-megabase DNA sequence of Phytophthora infestans, a robust parasitic water mold responsible for the Irish potato famine of the 1840s, in Nature (1). Breeders have not been able to produce potato cultivars that remain resistant to this insidious blight, aptly named as the plant (phyto) destroyer (phthora). This fungal-like pathogen is an oomycete, an eukaryote related to algae and diatoms that is transferred by wind-borne spores that spread rapidly and germinate on wet leaves, killing entire fields of potatoes, tomatoes, and other plants within a few weeks. Conservative estimates of potato crop losses attributed to late blight are about 16% (US$ 7.7 billion) of the global potato crop (US$ 47.2 billion) each year (2). The sequencing of this mold and subsequent genomic analyses will now help reveal details of its biologic and pathogenic processes, allowing more rapid development of reliable, environmentally benign, and economically feasible management tactics as well as insight into new breeding strategies. Yearly potato production (300 Mt) substantially contributes to worldwide food security, surpassed only by wheat (630 Mt) and rice (608 Mt)(2). While it is important to identify the problem genes responsible for infection, it is equally important to identify the genes that develop resistance.