Late blight, caused by the oomycete Phytophthora infestans, is the most devastating disease of potato. In organic farming, late blight is controlled by repeated applications of copper-based products, which negatively impact the environment. To find alternative solutions for late blight management, we have previously isolated a large collection of bacteria from the phyllosphere and the rhizosphe...

Phytophthora infestans (Mont.) de Bary, the causal agent of potato late blight, was responsible for the Irish potato famine of the 1840s. Initial disease outbreaks occurred in the US in 1843, two years prior to European outbreaks. We examined the evolutionary relationships and source of the 19th-century outbreaks using herbarium specimens of P. infestans from historic (1846-1970) and more recen...

Nicotiana benthamiana is a potential host to several plant pathogens, and immature leaves of N. benthamiana are susceptible to Phytophthora infestans. In contrast, mature leaves of N. benthamiana are weakly susceptible and show basal resistance to P. infestans. We screened a gene-silenced mature plant showing high resistance to P. infestans, designated as DS2 (Disease suppression 2). The deduce...

In response to pathogen attack, plant cells secrete antimicrobial molecules at the site of infection. However, how plant pathogens interfere with defense-related focal secretion remains poorly known. Here we show that the host-translocated RXLR-type effector protein AVRblb2 of the Irish potato famine pathogen Phytophthora infestans focally accumulates around haustoria, specialized infection str...

Plant pathogenic microbes have the remarkable ability to manipulate biochemical, physiological, and morphological processes in their host plants. These manipulations are achieved through a diverse array of effector molecules that can either promote infection or trigger defense responses. We describe a general functional genomics approach aimed at identifying extracellular effector proteins from...

Fungicide difenoconazole is applied for field treatment to protect potato and tomato against early blight, caused by the Alternaria fungi. It is practically important to estimate the impact of difenoconazole application against late blight pathogen Phytophthora infestans (Mont.) de Bary because of early and late blight often come together on potato. Effect of fungicide difenoconazole on the rad...

The greatest threat to potato production world-wide is late blight, caused by the oomycete pathogen Phytophthora infestans. A screen of 126 wild diploid Solanum accessions from the Commonwealth Potato Collection (CPC) with P. infestans isolates belonging to the genotype 13-A2 identified resistances in the species S. bulbocastanum, S. capsicibaccatum, S. microdontum, S. mochiquense, S. okadae, S...

The late blight disease caused by the fungus Phytophthora infestans is a serious pest of solanaceous crops capable of destroying a complete harvest. Therefore it is heavily treated with fungicides, especially in areas where the knowledge among farmers about application and impacts of fungicides is generally low, as it is the case in Nepal. In order to derive efficient treatment strategies with ...

The destructive late blight pathogen Phytophthora infestans is notorious for its rapid adaptation to circumvent detection mediated by plant resistance (R) genes. We performed comparative genomic hybridization on microarrays (array-CGH) in a near genome-wide survey to identify genome rearrangements related to changes in virulence. Six loci with copy number variation were found, one of which invo...