Potato blight map update

The latest international data on the distribution and diversity of potato blight dominant clones has been updated by plant pathologists from the EuroBlight consortium.

The report, by scientists from Aarhus University, Wageningen University and the James Hutton Institute (JHI), collates information from almost 1,500 samples collected and genotyped in 2017. It is now available on the research group website.

As in previous years, disease ‘scouts’ from across the industry visited blight-infected crops and DNA fingerprint data was used to define the clonal lineages of the pathogen and combined with geo-location data to plot the diversity across Europe.

Dr David Cooke, who co-leads the EuroBlight study, said three emerging clones are creating new challenges for late blight management.