IIGB/CEPCEB researcher Howard Judelson has received a $9 million five-year grant from the United States Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA-NIFA) to research late blight, which primarily attacks potatoes and tomatoes, and ensure a sustainable and long-term control of this devastating disease.

Late blight symptoms include the appearance of dark lesions on leaf tips and plant stems. In humid conditions, white mold appears under the leaves. Infected potatoes show gray or dark patches outside; inside, such potatoes show reddish brown lesions. A threat to home gardeners and commercial farmers, the disease can wipe out tomato and potato fields within a week.

The disease is caused by Phytophthora infestans, the most significant pathogen of potato, and a noteworthy tomato pest. Spores of the pathogen primarily travel in air, eventually landing on plants where the spores colonize leaves and cause them to die. Spores also can enter the soil, reach potato tubers, and destroy them. Available fungicides tend to be expensive and have potentially adverse environmental effects. Moreover, some strains of the pathogen are resistant to some fungicides.

Judelson will be joined at UCR by Thomas Girke, an IIGB/CEPCEB researcher and associate professor of bioinformatics, who will help sequence strains of Phytophthora infestans, and scientists at Cornell University, N.Y.; USDA-Agricultural Research Service, Corvallis, Ore.; the University of Idaho; the Scottish Crop Research Institute; North Carolina State University; the University of Florida; the University of Kentucky; La Universidad Autónoma Chapingo, Mexico; Boyce Thompson Institute, N.Y.; the University of Maine; Oregon State University; Pennsylvania State University; the University of Wisconsin; the University of Maryland; the University of South Carolina; and Purdue University, Ind. The grant, which became effective March 1, 2011, has a strong undergraduate research component. Of the $9 million total award, $4.3 million is budgeted to UCR for research and education activities; the rest will be shared by the other 16 institutions