Scientists of Plant Research International (PRI), part of Wageningen UR, and the division Plant of the new Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (nVWA) in the Netherlands are capable to isolate DNA from Synchytrium endobioticum, the soil fungus causing wart disease in potatoes.
| This parasitic fungus cannot survive without a living host. Until now it has been very difficult to obtain DNA from the fungus because this property makes growth on a nutrient medium impossible. PRI has now developed a protocol enabling isolation of DNA from the warts formed on wart-infested potatoes. This makes mapping of the genome of Synchytrium endobioticum possible, a significant step forward in research into the sustainable control of potato wart disease. |
Film: The execution of the protocol for obtaining DNA from the Synchytrium endobioticum fungus. |
Quarantine organism
Wart disease is a major threat in potato cultivation because once infested fields may remain infested for a long time. This is strongly restricting cultivation and export possibilities of potatoes and reproduction material. This is why wart disease is a so-called ‘quarantine disease’ in almost all countries of the world, also in the Netherlands, for which strict legal regulations apply. If wart disease is found on a field in the Netherlands, potato cultivation on the field itself is forbidden. In addition, only fully resistant cultivars may be grown in a buffer zone around the infestation. Symptoms on the potato are warts that resemble ‘cauliflower stalks’.
The presentation of the wart disease material by nVWA to PRI |
Isolation of DNA
Researchers of nVWA have selected one isolate of the Synchytrium endobioticum fungus and used this to infest potatoes. The resulting warts were cut from the potatoes after which Plant Research International isolated DNA from the winter spores (survival structures of the fungus found in the warts). This new protocol yields a fairly pure DNA extract of the fungus which only contains little DNA of the potato itself. The makes the follow-up step, unraveling the complete DNA sequence, easier and thus faster and cheaper because less DNA needs to be studied. |
Step forward in potato wart disease control
The genome sequence is expected to be available in about three to four months. This will yield a large amount of useful information about the Synchytrium endobioticum fungus, such as why it cannot survive without host and where it differs from other fungi. This information means a big step forward in research into the potato wart disease and into the development of molecular tests to distinguish different forms of potato wart disease. This may lead to a more sustainable potato production.
This research is financed from the FES programme Strengthening Infrastructure Plant Health.