Researchers Discover Potato Blight-Resistant Gene
In an article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, University of Wisconsin researchers announced they had discovered a gene that confers blight resistance on potatoes.
The late blight fungus was partly responsible for the great Irish famine of 1845 in which more than 1 million people died, and blight is still a major source of potato crop loss around the world.
Researchers discovered the blight resistant gene in a wild variety of potato, and then inserted the gene into other varieties. In initial testing, the genetically modified potato was much more resistant to the blight.
Researcher John Helgeson said of the GM potato that, “So far, the plants have been resistant to everything we have thrown at them.”
The availability of a blight resistant potato would dramatically reduce the amount of pesticides that farmers today have to apply to kill the fungus. In warm climates, for example, pesticides have to be applied as frequently as 25 times a year to keep the disease in check.
More research is needed on the GM potatoes, and a blight resistant potato is unlikely to reach market for at least five years.
Source:
Blight-resistant gene ‘could have averted potato famine’. U-TV, July 15, 2003.
GM potato is ‘blight resistant’. The BBC, July 15, 2003.
UW Researchers Develop Blight-Resistant Potato. Wisconsin Ag Connection, July 16, 2003.
The Researchers Discover Potato Blight-Resistant Gene by Brian Carnell, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.
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