Annual Crops

The importance of powdery scab, caused by Spongospora subterranea f.sp. subterranea, has increased seriously worldwide in the last 20 years due to new susceptible varieties, increased irrigation, intensification of crop rotation, banning of mercury as seed treatment and neglect in certification and breeding. No direct control measure exists. Only an integrated approach will allow to get control over this soilborne disease with a long persistence.

Past
Findings of a relationship between host susceptibility to tuber infection and the level of root infection by the zoosporangial stage speeds up screening processes in breeding. Collaborative research produced a commercially available monoclonal antiserum to resting spores of S. subterranea.

Present
To improve potato seed quality concerning powdery scab, tools are developed (e.g. on-site ELISA, rapid soil test) for a farmers advisory system.

Selected potato cultivars are cropped in five European countries and powdery scab root and tuber infection is scored to assess the level of genotype x environment interaction variability.

Future
Host resistance: the importance of the factors controlling zoospore release, attraction by host and the infection process in roots.

Molecular markers (microsatellites): understanding pathogen population dynamics and the sexual recombination/race occurrence.

Research Projects