Recent Advances in Potato Late Blight Disease Management Strategies

Potato is the world’s number one non-grain food commodity, with production reaching 325 million tons. Some inherent qualities give potato a competitive edge over the leading food crops. It is able to produce more protein and carbohydrates per unit area than cereals. Among all the crops grown worldwide, is known to suffer the greatest losses from disease attack. Among those diseases late blight and bacterial wilt are the most economical diseases which incurred 100% yield loss. The main Objective of this review was to understand very well the recent advances on potato late blight disease management up to gene for gene level and incorporate these recent molecular advances with the conventional one for mitigating the virulence spectrum of the pathogen. The population of P. infestans characterized using molecular markers has led to better understanding of pathogen at molecular level. Mitochondrial DNA haplotyping of P. infestans has revealed that mt Ia is displacing the other haplotypes globally at a faster rate.