{"id":298295,"date":"2021-07-05T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-05T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/innovationorigins.com\/?p=298295"},"modified":"2021-07-05T17:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-07-05T15:00:00","slug":"dutch-wageningen-university-close-to-solution-for-much-feared-potato-blight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/dutch-wageningen-university-close-to-solution-for-much-feared-potato-blight\/","title":{"rendered":"Dutch Wageningen University close to solution for much-feared potato blight"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Potato blight has caused famine and misery for centuries. The most famous example was in Ireland between 1845 and 1850 when about 90% of the potato crop was lost. Many Irish died of famine or left the country. Ever since, it has been a constant battle against the notorious pathogen phytophthora infestans<\/em> (literally plant destroyer<\/em>). This can kill not only potatoes but also, for example, eggplants, tomatoes, cocoa, pepper and palms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Controlling phytophthora is difficult, in part because the pathogen and its target (the plant) are in a perpetual arms race with each other. In order to become less dependent on pesticides, a great deal is being invested in the development of resistant crops. This is done by breeding plants and more attention is also being paid to new forms of mixed cultivation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is helping, but despite this, the damage remains significant. The economic cost of Phytophthora for potato cultivation alone is estimated at 6 to 7 billion euros each year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A sharp knife<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

But an invention created by Wageningen University & Research (WUR) in The Netherlands offers hope. Experts from a variety of fields, ranging from cell biologists and physicists to plant disease experts, joined forces and first found out what Phytophthora’s main weapon is and then developed a green defensive wall. The research has been published in Nature Microbiology<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"This
Phytophthora at work on a tomato plant. Photo Pixabay\/Pam Carter<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

“We discovered that\u00a0Phytophthora\u00a0<\/em>uses clever tricks to sharpen its tubular infection structure to then cut through the surface of the plant with a sharp knife. Using this strategy,\u00a0Phytophthora\u00a0<\/em>is able to infect its host, without brute force and with minimal consumption of energy. This is the first time that this mechanism has been uncovered, and really a fundamental discovery,” Joris Sprakel, Professor of Physical Chemistry and Soft Matter, said in a press release<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adhesive strength<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Professor of Phytopathology Francine Govers immediately spotted opportunities to combat phytophthora more effectively, efficiently and sustainably over time without involving the usual suspects of chemistry and plant breeding. Govers: “The laws of mechanics tell us that\u00a0Phytophthora\u00a0<\/em>is unable to penetrate the plant without first attaching itself tightly to the leaf surface.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To test this idea, as a first proof of its feasibility, the researchers sprayed the leaves of potato plants with a non-toxic and inexpensive substance that minimizes the stickiness of the leaf. “This helped reduce the rate of infection by about 65%,” the WUR reports. “In an optimized trial on artificial surfaces, this effect even veered toward 100%.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It now seems to be only a matter of perfecting the process in order to hand Phytophthora and the potato disease a major setback. The WUR sees it as a victory for science and proof that a multidisciplinary approach to problems can lead to breakthroughs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Potato blight has caused famine and misery for centuries. The most famous example was in Ireland between 1845 and 1850 when about 90% of the potato crop was lost. Many Irish died of famine or left the country. Ever since, it has been a constant battle against the notorious pathogen phytophthora infestans (literally plant destroyer). […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1723,"featured_media":512517,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[34665],"tags":[62981,62983,62985,52046,62987,62989,27018],"location":[6763],"article_type":[36684],"serie":[],"archives":[],"internal_archives":[],"reboot-archive":[],"class_list":["post-298295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-phytopathology","tag-phytophthora","tag-plant-diseases","tag-potato","tag-potato-blight","tag-wageningen-university-research-5","tag-wur","location-netherlands","article_type-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"acf":{"subtitle":"WUR researchers from various disciplines have figured out how the causative agent of potato blight infects a plant and then developed an inexpensive non-toxic substance that acts to protect plants.","text_display_homepage":false},"author_meta":{"display_name":"Maurits Kuypers","author_link":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/author\/maurits-kuypers\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/9c3e3c17-ffbe-45d6-8395-3f462d396530_PB-Sprakel-Govers-Nature-Biology.jpeg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["Health<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Health<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["Phytopathology<\/a>","phytophthora<\/a>","plant diseases<\/a>","potato<\/a>","potato blight<\/a>","Wageningen University & Research<\/a>","WUR<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Phytopathology<\/span>","phytophthora<\/span>","plant diseases<\/span>","potato<\/span>","potato blight<\/span>","Wageningen University & Research<\/span>","WUR<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 5 years ago","modified":"Updated 5 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on July 5, 2021","modified":"Updated on July 5, 2021"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on July 5, 2021 5:00 pm","modified":"Updated on July 5, 2021 5:00 pm"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1723"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/512517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298295"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=298295"},{"taxonomy":"article_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_type?post=298295"},{"taxonomy":"serie","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/serie?post=298295"},{"taxonomy":"archives","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/archives?post=298295"},{"taxonomy":"internal_archives","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/internal_archives?post=298295"},{"taxonomy":"reboot-archive","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reboot-archive?post=298295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}