Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) is an important vegetable crop worldwide. Often times, its production is hindered by fungal diseases. Important fungal diseases limiting tomato production are late blight, caused by Phytophthora infestans, early blight, caused by Alternaria solanii, and septoria leaf spot, caused by Septoria lycopersici, fusarium wilt caused by Fusarium oxysporium fsp. oxysporium, ...

Pathogens belonging to the Oomycota, a group of heterokont, fungal-like organisms, are amongst the most notorious pathogens in agriculture. In particular, the obligate biotrophic downy mildews and the hemibiotrophic members of the genus Phytophthora are responsible for a huge variety of destructive diseases, including sudden oak death caused by P. ramorum, potato late blight caused by P. infest...

The potato late-blight disease is caused by the pseudofungus Phytophthora infestans (Oomycetes). This pathogen was of historical importance as it caused the Irish Potato Famine. There is currently a worldwide resurgence of the disease. Following worldwide migrations as well as being able to discriminate P. infestans from related species are key issues. We present sequence variation of five inte...

Taiwanese isolates of Phytophthora infestans were examined for mating types and pathogenicity to tomato and potato. A total of 70 isolates, including 68 isolates from tomato and 2 isolates from potato, from six counties of Taiwan were all A1 mating type. Three tomato isolates of P. infestans caused only leaf blight of tomato, while two isolates obtained from potato were able to cause the diseas...

Phytophthora infestans is a devastating phytopathogenic oomycete that causes late blight on tomato and potato. Recent genome sequencing efforts of P. infestans and other Phytophthora species are generating vast amounts of sequence data providing opportunities to unlock the complex nature of pathogenesis. However, accurate annotation of Phytophthora genomes will be a significant challenge. Most ...

There are more than 60 species in the genus Phytophthora (94), and most are destructive plant pathogens. Extensive efforts are directed at the control of Phytophthora diseases each year, yet they still cause serious crop losses. For example, more than $200 million in lost production annually is attributed to Phytophthora diseases in Australia alone (47). Late blight, caused by P. infestans, pro...

Phytophthora infestans (Mont.) de Bary caused the 19th century Irish Potato Famine. We assessed the genealogical history of P. infestans using sequences from portions of two nuclear genes (beta-tubulin and Ras) and several mitochondrial loci P3, (rpl14, rpl5, tRNA) and P4 (Cox1) from 94 isolates from South, Central, and North America, as well as Ireland. Summary statistics, migration analyses a...

There are more than 60 species in the genus Phytophthora (94), and most are destructive plant pathogens. Extensive efforts are directed at the control of Phytophthora diseases each year, yet they still cause serious crop losses. For example, more than $200 million in lost production annually is attributed to Phytophthora diseases in Australia alone (47). Late blight, caused by P. infestans, pro...

Late blight, caused by the oomycete Phytophthora infestans, is economically most important foliar disease of potato. To assess importance leaf surface, as site first encounter pathogen and host, we performed untargeted profiling liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry surface metabolites susceptible cultivated potato Solanum tuberosum resistant wild species bulbocastanum. Hydroxycinnamic acid a...

The central highlands of Mexico are considered to be a center of genetic diversity for both the potato late blight pathogen and for tuber-bearing Solanum spp. Recent work conducted in Mexico and South America sheds new light on the biology and evolution of Phytophthora infestans and other related Phytophthora pathogens. It now appears that Mexican Solanum species, which coevolved with P. infest...