Exploiting soil microbiomes for development of natural fungicides targeting P. infestans

Potato late blight is one of the most damaging diseases facing England's crops. Untreated, it can devastate crops within 2 weeks of infection. Each year the disease is estimated to cause £3.5Bn in direct losses and control costs, including £800Mn in EU and UK alone.

Managing blight requires the most fungicide applications of any crop in the UK, with growers using an average of 10 or up to 20 treatments to ensure yield (vs 1-3 fungicide treatments used on other major crops). Such extensive use of synthetic chemicals is resulting in resistance build-up and widespread environmental damage.

With all of today's solutions either at-risk of resistance build-up or regulator removal, new solutions are needed now to prevent the spread of resistant varieties, maintain future crop security and meet demands for improving agricultural efficiencies.

Using a combination of cutting-edge synthetic biology, directed evolution, machine learning and bioinformatics approaches, we aim to analyse soil microbiomes from 10 UK potato farms and identify 5 novel bacterially-derived fungicides against _P. infestans._ Discovery of new fungicides against this major global pathogen will provide a compelling case for further investment from key global agricultural players.

Overall, our aim is to provide growers with more effective, more sustainable options for crop protection against late blight and to safeguard England's potato industry into the future. This ambition aligns with UK Plant Science Research Strategy to develop better, greener soil management practices and will support farmers in achieving the UK's ambitions to boost productivity and reduce the environmental impact of farming for sustainable potato production.