Bacterial Pathogens Associated with Potatoes: An Innovative Solution

Bacterial pathogens of potatoes are responsible for substantial losses, through disease, damage and failure to meet market specifications and providing environmentally-sound, practical solutions to these problems is a high priority across the whole industry. This is the challenge that is to be addressed here; i.e. developing an innovative bactericide treatment that will be applicable across the potato industry, with the subsequent potential to roll the technology out across the arable and horticultural sectors. The target disease for the project is potato blackleg, which is a major cause of seed downgrading and rejections in northen Europe, while the related condition of bacterial soft rot of tubers can result in major production loss for both seed and ware producers. The proposed innovative treatments will target not only Pectobacterium spp. but also Dickeya spp, particularly D. solani which is emerging as a major threat to European potato production. The lead business (Advanced Pest Solutions) is developing an innovative platform technology that has the potential to specifically target the bacteria responsible for the associated disease symptoms (i.e. leaf wilt and tuber soft rot). The technology incorporates novel, naturally-occurring, highly specific and safe agents and is suitable for both mainstream- and organic agriculture. The TSB consortium has been formed to develop and translate the technology into an innovative, non-chemical, environmentally-acceptable seed potato treatment, aiming to reduce the carry-over of the target pathogens from one season to the next on tubers, through both controlling pathogen development on the tubers and protecting daughter tubers against infection.