Funded by Norway Grants for a period of three years, Divgene (‘Diversity analyses of key genes involved in interaction between potato and Phytophthora infestans ’) will be seeking to build on recent discoveries on the major resistance genes against late blight.

IHAR reports: “The first specific objective of the DivGene project is diagnosing of the presence of several late blight resistance genes and analysis of their diversity in potato cultivars grown in Poland and Norway. The products of resistance genes work as alarm switches that recognise pathogen’s proteins and start defence reactions that result in resistance.

“A second project objective is diversity analysis of the genes encoding late blight effectors in the populations of the pathogen in Poland and Norway. These two goals will be achieved with use of high throughput next generation sequencing method and a technique allowing for selective sequencing of the genes of interest (AmpSeq).”

IHAR explains that the project will produce new knowledge helping to answer key questions, such as why plant resistance is not durable, whether the durability of resistance produced by different genes may also differ, what shapes late blight populations and why some strains dominate in Poland and Norway.

“Better understanding of the interactions between plants and pathogens can in future be exploited in practical plant breeding and in improvement of the disease control methods, which will help to reduce pesticide usage and the negative impact of the agriculture on the natural environment,” says IHAR.

For more information:

• Read the full story on the IHAR website here