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Re: [SANET-MG] BBC NEWS | UK | England | Tyne/Wear | Researchers hail organic potatoes



Katherine Marsh wrote from Ireland:

> Sarpo Axona has just started to go down with blight here in north
> Dublin, Sarpo Mira is still clear, as is Symfonia. Lady Eve
> Balfour survived to this week but showed the first signs of blight
> three days ago. I've taken the individual damaged leaves off and I
> think it will keep growing and make a worthwhile crop. Across the
> road sixty acres of Rooster which have been sprayed with Dithane
> at many times the legal limit are being ploughed in today.

Does history have to repeat itself? Phytophthora attacks the roots
of the pineapple plant and substances produced by the beneficial
fungus Pisolithus Tinctorius are specifically active against it.

This is good re Phytophthora infestans:
<http://www.tigr.org/tdb/e2k1/pima1/index.shtml>
(My comments are interspaced 2 spaces to the left)

  Late blight caused by Phytophthora infestans is a devastating
  disease of potato and tomato in the U.S. and worldwide. Epidemics
  due to P. infestans in 1845 led to the Irish potato famine and the
  mass migration and death of millions of people in Ireland. Late
  blight is now considered a re-emerging disease and has reached
  epidemic proportions in North America and Europe due to the
  development of resistance to the fungicide metalaxyl in
  populations of the pathogen and the widespread occurrence of new
  genotypes.

Fungicides can't change their actions but beneficial organisms can
continue to adapt to any changes the pathogen develops.

  The pathogen causes a destructive foliar blight and
  also infects potato tubers and tomato fruit under cool, moist
  conditions.

That's where a compost tea containing P. Tintorius would fit in.
  
  ... P. infestans was ranked number two by the American
  Phytopathological Society on the list of plant pathogen species
  targeted for DNA sequencing and whole genome sequencing is now
  underway at the Whitehead Institute at MIT. There is a large
  database of genetic information available on P. infestans
  including a genetic linkage map and expressed sequence tag (EST)
  libraries and genetic systems are tractable.

They are attempting to study this pathogen in a vacuum. Studying
it's interactions with other organisms would be much more useful.

  In addition, the Phytophthora research community holds regular
  meetings and exchanges information freely and has formed the
  Phytophthora Molecular Genetic Network whose goal is to facilitate
  the exchange of information and resources related to Phytophthora
  molecular genetics.

Are they looking for the factors that make it a pathogen?
  
  ... One tool that would be of use to scientists and growers would
  be the ability to rapidly genotype isolates of the pathogen.
  Haplotypes could be correlated with virulence

They are.

  and resistance to pesticides

But why limit remediation to chemical solutions that ignore the
causative factors and fail to deal with them? Instead of modifying
the environment in positive ways, this approach worsens
environmental quality and weakens it's equilibrium, diminishing the
presence, activity and diversity of the soil microorganisms
responsible for soil organisms are also responsible for capturing
and facilitating the assimilation of nutrients by plants, as well as
growth-stimulating phyto-hormones and substances with anti-biotic
activity against pathogens.

  and used in epidemiological studies
  
  In addition, whole mitochondrial genome sequence analysis will be
  useful in studies to examine molecular evolution in the pathogen.

It would be more useful if it's interactions with other species were
taken into account, also.

...

  Project Members

  # Jean Beagle Ristaino, Professor, Plant Pathology, N. C. State Univ., Jean_Ristaino@ncsu.edu
  # C. Robin Buell, Associate Investigator, The Institute for Genomic Research, rbuell@tigr.org
  # Luis Alpizar Gomez, Graduate assistant, NCSU, legomez@unity.ncsu.edu
  # Shu Ouyang, Bioinformatics Analyst, TIGR, souyang@tigr.org

I am sending a copy of this to each of them.

-- 

Douglas Hinds
Coordinador Nacional de Producción Organica
Confederacion Nacional de Propietarios Rurales

Chair, Organic Pineapple Working Group
International Society for Horticultural Science
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/opwg

Dir. Gral.
Centro para el Desarrollo Comunitario y Rural, A.C.

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