Protecting Scotland’s crops: disease resistance and pathogen biology

Challenges

Scottish agriculture faces significant challenges and opportunities related to changing policy, markets, environment, and technology. More specifically, the agriculture sector needs to maintain and increase profitability by responding to changing market conditions while simultaneously contributing to Scottish Government commitments on greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity. These objectives must be achieved in an evolving natural environment in which risks, such as increased summer drought, and opportunities, such as increased area of prime agricultural land, are rapidly changing. Underpinning these changes is a need to exploit genetic diversity and accelerate the efficient breeding of crop cultivars adapted to new growing technologies and environments.

The potato and soft fruit industries in Scotland are an economically important part of the agricultural sector. Pathogens and pests, both established and newly emerging, represent major constraints to sustainable crop production. There is a need to develop crops for the future which are more resilient to the changes in climate and require lower high-carbon inputs, such as fertilisers and pesticides. It is important to increase biodiversity by introducing new crops which have increased resilience. Crops with these traits reduce the need for pesticides and thus have a positive environmental impact. Establishing such crops can also extend production seasons, mitigating risk for farmers from sporadic unfavourable growing conditions. Extending the growing season for Scottish soft fruit would also extend the period that fresh locally grown soft fruit would be available for Scottish consumers.

Questions

Solutions

This project cuts across the key Scottish crop (potato and soft fruit), to coordinate approaches aimed at mitigating disease threats. Crucial to this research is a detailed molecular understanding of host and pathogen biology and thus the mechanisms that lead to resistance or susceptibility. It is this understanding that will connect germplasm resources with breeding through the development of markers linked to the resistances. We are considering the interactions between microbes, plants, and pathogens in the environment and how these impact disease. Our priorities are the characterisation and mobilisation of durable resistances effective against Potato cyst nematodes (PCN), late blight, and viruses for potatoes, as well as root rot, insects (aphids and two-spotted spider mites) and fungi (botrytis) in soft fruits.

Identifying disease resistance in potatoes and soft fruits

We are identifying resistance and tolerance in potatoes and soft fruit crops to a range of key pathogens (Potato: Potato Cyst Nematode (PCN), late blight, and viruses; Soft fruit: root rot causing oomycetes, insects, and fungi) that impact this industry to accelerate resistance breeding. The results are future-proofing potatoes against newly emerging pathogen variations that could potentially threaten deployed resistances.

Pathogen biology and effector research in potato and soft fruit

This project is enhancing our understanding of plant resistance mechanisms in potato and soft fruit to develop effective and sustainable control strategies. This covers pathogen biology and effector research. In potatoes, we focus on the penetration of host tissue by late blight and egg hatching in PCN. For raspberries, we are determining the factors that initiate infection from P. Rubi oospores that can be dormant in the soil for many years. This work is relevant to diseases caused by pests and pathogens of other Scottish crops and threats to Scotland’s natural biodiversity and informs disease management strategies.

Understanding and enhancing the plant immune system

Sustainable crop production requires attuning the environment (light and light quality, abiotic stresses, and host life cycle) to promote defence are novel aspects. We are exploring how environmental change influences the plant immune system. This includes the identification of beneficial soil microbes for potato protection and the role of beneficial microbes in protecting soft fruit.

Disease control options that consider the interaction between crops and the soil

Our previous research revealed that crops grown under sustainably managed soil conditions are less prone to disease compared to those under conventionally managed soils. We are phenotypically assessing disease suppression potential against PCN of microbial antagonists. In raspberry, arbuscular mycorrhizas have been shown to potentially reduce root rot severity. We are examining how these fungi impact disease and other above and below-ground traits.

Project Partners

Progress