News on Phytophthora from United Kingdom

October 27, 2021

Fighting late blight: what does it take to bring a resistant potato variety to market?

Seed breeders work closely with potato growers to develop desirable agronomic traits, and with the wider supply chain for those crucial characteristics such as dry matter distribution, sugar formation, and storability.

October 19, 2021

Waitrose Signs Up To the Robust Potato Pledge for Organic Potatoes

Waitrose and Partners is set to be the first major retailer to sign up to The UK Robust Potato Pledge, which will see the group move away from the use of copper-based fungicides on organic fresh potatoes in order to combat late blight Phytophthora.

May 03, 2021

Blight studies reveal evolution of potato disease in Europe and Asia

Plant scientists at the James Hutton Institute are studying the evolution of late blight in potato by working with industry and research partners to track the distribution and diversity of dominant clones in Europe in 2020

January 17, 2020

Gowan acquires late blight, rhizoctonia protection agents from Bayer

Gowan Crop Protection Limited, an affiliate of Gowan Co. LLC., has entered into agreements with Bayer AG to acquire rights to the active ingredients fenamidone and pencycuron.

Four 'resistancy' genes in current commercial potato varieties already defeated by Phytophthora Infestans

July 31, 2019

Four late blight 'resistancy' genes in current commercial potato varieties already defeated by Phytophthora Infestans

Recent research at the James Hutton Institute suggests that limited genetic differences in potato lineages has left British and American spuds vulnerable to late blight, the disease that caused the Irish potato famine.

March 28, 2018

New Late Blight Strain in UK requires Fresh Approach to Control

Late Blight control strategies in the United Kingdom will have to change this season if potato growers are to combat the spread of a new aggressive, fungicide-insensitive/ resistant strain of the disease, leading agronomy firm Hutchinsons says.

October 26, 2017

First field trial with GM Maris Piper resistant to late blight went brilliantly

A genetically-modified (GM) Maris Piper designed to resist the devastating plant disease late blight has worked “brilliantly” during the first year of field trials, according to scientists of The Sainsbury Laboratory (TSL)

August 05, 2017

Potatoes in Practice: Britain’s largest technical potato field event is this week

Potato industry representatives, growers and influencers from all over the UK and beyond are expected to descend on Dundee to take part in Potatoes in Practice 2017, a technical potato field event featuring a high-standard mix of science, technology and practical advice and the largest of its type in the UK.

May 11, 2017

The Sainsbury Laboratory received approval for a four-year trial of genetically modified (GM) potatoes

In the United Kingdom, farming minster George Eustice (DEFRA) has approved a four-year trial of genetically modified (GM) potatoes at The Sainsbury Laboratory in Norwich.

April 25, 2016

New technique accelerates isolation of late blight resistance genes from a wild potato relative

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.

Maris Piper (Courtesy: Potato Council Variety Database / SASA)

June 10, 2015

The Quest to Engineer the Perfect Potato

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

April 29, 2015

Blightcast warnings (UK) adapted to more aggressive blight strains

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.

Sporangia of P. infestans: sporangium from which a zoospore is germinating. (photo: B. G. Turgeon; Cornell University)

June 11, 2014

Breakthrough in understanding swarming potato blight spores

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.

June 10, 2014

Potato Blight warning issued in Northern Ireland

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

May 15, 2014

UK: Potatoes emerge to perfect storm of blight pressure

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

February 27, 2013

'Sarpo Mira' potato variety 'plant of the week' in The Guardian

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

September 23, 2012

Modern DNA Techniques Applied to Nineteenth-Century Potatoes

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 ...