Pest and disease resistance
Regionally adapted varieties of crops with ‘built in resistance’ to key pests are the foundation of many IPM systems, since they reduce pressure and damage of key pests (‘target’ species). Additional IPM tools (eg biocontrol) need to be complementary to this genetic resistance so they can maximise the durability of the resistance trait(s) bred into the crop.
IPM research has brought together and tested late blight managment components including host resistance, disease forcasting, spore detection, inoculum sources and fungicide programmes.
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Potato cyst nematodes are major pests of potato in the UK causing significant economic losses.
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Resistance elicitors mimic the potential attack of a pest, parasite or pathogen on a plant thereby inducing a defence response. High level induction of defence responses can be costly to the plant resulting in deleterious effects, i.e. lost yield or...
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Soil-borne pathogens of potato cause a number of serious blemish diseases. By employing appropriate soil sampling strategies in conjunction with a method for soil DNA extraction and real-time PCR assays to detect and quantify target pathogens, we...
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Mixtures of several current recommended varieties of barley, particularly winter types, can be used to partially control many pathogens, particularly splash-dispersed pathogens such as R. commune (causing rhynchosporium or scald), as a control...
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Pest and disease damage in soft fruit plantations can lead to significant yield loss, costing the industry millions of pounds annually. Current soft fruit breeding programmes have not fully exploited plant traits that confer resistance to, or...
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Blackleg (including soft rot) of potato is a devastating disease for which there are no chemical treatments. Disease control is particularly important for the seed potato industry as the pathogen, once present, increases in population through seed...
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We have been breeding raspberry varieties for Scotland, UK and Europe for > 40 years. A key trait (conferred by one or more major resistance genes) is for resistance to the main aphid pest, the large raspberry aphid. This strategy has been very...
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Bacterial pathogens pose a serious threat to either plant health or to food safety. This has the consequence of financial impacts on crop production for pathogens that causes disease on plants, or human health impacts for food-borne pathogens...
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