$9 Million Grant To Help Shed Light On Late Blight

Given that world potato production is about 320 million tons per year (20 million tons per year in the U.S.) and world tomato production is about 120 million tons per year (13 million tons per year in the U.S.), late blight is a major problem. With total costs of the disease estimated at more than $7 billion per year, it can drive farmers out of business and increase food prices.

Howard Judelson, a professor of plant pathology at the University of California, Riverside, has received a $9 million five-year grant from the USDA, National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA-NIFA) to research late blight and ensure a sustainable and long-term control of this devastating disease. "Late blight is a global problem," said Judelson, who will lead a multidisciplinary team of Extension faculty and researchers — plant pathologists, molecular biologists, epidemiologists, plant breeders, sociologists and economists — at universities, government labs and a nonprofit research institution.

Judelson will be joined at UC Riverside by Thomas Girke, an associate professor of bioinformatics, and scientists at Cornell University, N.Y.; the University of Florida; USDA-ARS, Corvallis, OR; the University of Idaho; the Scottish Crop Research Institute; North Carolina State University; the University of Kentucky; La Universidad Autónoma Chapingo, Mexico; Boyce Thompson Institute, NY; the University of ME; Oregon State University; Pennsylvania State University; the University of Wisconsin; the University of Maryland; the University of South Carolina; and Purdue University.
The grant, which became effective March 1, has a strong undergraduate research component. Of the $9 million total award, $4.3 million is budgeted to UC Riverside for research and education activities; the rest will be shared by the other 16 institutions.

Late blight symptoms include the appearance of dark lesions on leaf tips and plant stems. In humid conditions, white mold appears under the leaves. Infected potatoes show gray or dark patches outside; inside, such potatoes show reddish brown lesions. A threat to home gardeners and commercial farmers, the disease can wipe out tomato and potato fields within a week.

The disease is caused by Phytophthora infestans, the most significant pathogen of potato and a noteworthy tomato pest. Spores of the pathogen primarily travel in air, eventually landing on plants where the spores colonize leaves and cause them to die. Spores also can enter the soil, reach potato tubers, and destroy them. Available fungicides tend to be expensive and have potentially adverse environmental effects. Moreover, some strains of the pathogen are resistant to some fungicides.

The research project will emphasize providing growers with better tools for managing the disease. These include better systems for making disease management decisions, plant varieties that are more resistant, tools for rapid identification of the pathogen, and tools for characterizing pathogen strains. The researchers also will test and expand the use of social media and smartphone technology to communicate with growers.

Source: UC Riverside news release