LATE BLIGHT OF POTATO CAUSED BY PHYTOPHTHORA INFESTANS AND ITS INTEGRATED MANAGEMENT
Crop Improvement
If you've ever grown potatoes and watched the leaves suddenly turn brown and collapse seemingly overnight, that's late blight—a disease so aggressive it can wipe out an entire patch in days under humid conditions, and the same one that starved a million people in Ireland.
Potato late blight is caused by a pathogen that spreads rapidly in cool, wet weather and can destroy entire crops within days if not caught early. It's a serious problem worldwide, wiping out up to 70-100% of harvests in some regions when conditions favor the disease. Scientists and farmers are working together on a range of tools—better fungicides, resistant potato varieties, biological controls, and weather-based warning systems—to keep it in check.
Key Findings
Late blight can cause yield losses of 70-100% in severe outbreak regions like Karnataka, India, and averages 10-15% annual losses across India as a whole.
Regional losses are highest in Sub-Saharan Africa (up to 44%), Latin America and the Caribbean (36%), and Southeast Asia (35%), making it a major food security threat in developing regions.
The pathogen's ability to reproduce both sexually and asexually, combined with rapid evolution of fungicide resistance and high genetic variability, makes late blight exceptionally difficult to manage through any single control method.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Late blight, caused by the water mold Phytophthora infestans, is the most destructive potato disease in the world and the same pathogen behind the 1840s Irish Famine. This review summarizes how the disease works, why it's so hard to control, and what integrated strategies—from fungicides to biocontrol to forecasting tools—can help farmers protect their crops.
Abstract Preview
The potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is a cornerstone of global food security, ranking as the world's fourth-largest food crop after maize, wheat, and rice. Its high carbohydrate content, primarily as...
open_in_new Read full abstractAbstract copyright held by the original publisher.
Species Mentioned
Was this useful?
Want to tell us more? (optional)
Thanks for the note!
Something went wrong — please try again.
Too many submissions. Try again in an hour.
Chloroplast Genome Editing Eliminates Gluten Immunogenicity in Triticum aestivum
It could mean that people with celiac disease — roughly 1 in 100 worldwide — may one day safely eat bread made from real wheat, without sacrificing the taste...
The potato is a starchy tuberous vegetable native to the Americas that is consumed as a staple food in many parts of the world. Potatoes are underground stem tubers of the plant Solanum tuberosum, a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae.