Molecular Pathogens, 2025, Vol.16, No.1, 36-44 http://microbescipublisher.com/index.php/mp 41 eIF4E. This enhances potato resistance to PVY (Miroshnichenko et al., 2019). More importantly, this approach does not affect the appearance and yield of the potato. Because resistance genes are activated only when viruses are attacked and are usually “dormant”, they have little impact on the normal growth of plants. 7 Case Study Sharing 7.1 Breeding for late blight resistance Late blight is a very serious potato disease, which is caused by the late blight of potato (Phytophthora infestans). This disease exists around the world and has a particularly large impact on yield. To deal with it, scientists have been working hard to breed disease-resistant varieties. The commonly used method now is to use molecular technology to find disease-resistant genes. The researchers will screen these genes from cultivars and wild potatoes and then combine them into a variety. A method called “gene aggregation” is to concentrate multiple resistance genes into the same plant, which can make resistance longer (Figure 3) (Fadina et al., 2017; Berindean et al., 2024). In addition to this method, scientists are also trying to further enhance disease resistance using CRISPR gene editing and RNA interference techniques (Berindean et al., 2024). In addition, the study also combined transcriptome and metabolomic analysis. These studies have found some important genes that play a key role in identifying pathogens and initiating plant defenses (Yogendra and Kushalappa, 2016a, 2016b). The ultimate goal of these practices is to reduce the use of pesticides and cultivate potato varieties that can resist late blight. Figure 3 Breeding strategies of resistance for P. infestans. There are mainly two strategies for breeding: enhance the plant resistance and/or alter its susceptibility to the pathogen. There are two types of resistance: the first one is called qualitative and is total (the plant is or resistant, or susceptible); the second, called quantitative, is partial (the plant could have some degree of resistance/susceptibility). Legend: x: rejected for both qualitative and quantitative resistance breeding (the plant is too susceptible to the disease); +: accepted for quantitative resistance (there is an enhancement of the resistance: the plant is more resistant than the starting material); ✩: Accepted for qualitative resistance: the plant is totally resistant to the pathogen, and there is no sign of the disease (Adopted from Berindean et al., 2024)
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