Taiwanese isolates of Phytophthora infestans were examined for mating types and pathogenicity to tomato and potato. A total of 70 isolates, including 68 isolates from tomato and 2 isolates from potato, from six counties of Taiwan were all A1 mating type. Three tomato isolates of P. infestans caused only leaf blight of tomato, while two isolates obtained from potato were able to cause the diseas...

Crop wild relatives are an important source of genetic diversity for crop improvement. However, the survival of some of these wild plant species could be threatened because of climate change. We used current and projected future climate data for ~2055, and a climate-envelope species-distribution model to predict the impact of climate change on the wild relatives of peanut (Arachis), potato (Sol...

Thiabendazole (TBZ), an antifungal and antihelmintic benzimidazole derivative, after 6 min treatment with a 0.1 m M aqueous solution enhances C 0 2 release in intact potato tubers for up to two hours. There are also indications for a reduced water permeability of isolated periderm layers from TBZ treated potato tubers. Potato slices (ca. 3 mm thick) or discs (with ca. 5 mm diameter) from potato...

Various densities of adult potato leafhoppers were established on 'Essex' soybean at plant growth stage V2 in caged field plots. Cages were removed two weeks later, and plots remained uncaged for the rest of the growing season. Direct counts of nymphal leafhoppers on plants shortly after cage removal confirmed that a gradient of infestation levels was attained. In both years of the study, highe...

Potato virus Y (PVY) is an important plant pathogen causing considerable economic loss to potato production. Knowledge of the population genetic structure and evolutionary biology of the pathogen, particularly at a transnational scale, is limited but vital in developing sustainable management schemes. In this study, the population genetic structure and molecular evolution of PVY were studied us...

The factors that regulate storage organ carotenoid content remain to be fully elucidated, despite the nutritional and economic importance of this class of compound. Recent findings suggest that carotenoid pool size is determined, at least in part, by the activity of carotenoid cleavage dioxygenases. The aim of this study was to investigate whether Carotenoid Cleavage Dioxygenase4 (CCD4) activit...

The aim of the present study was to get somaclonal variants and induced mutants of potato for desirable characters with special emphasis on yield and yield components in two cultivars of potato viz., Desiree and Diamant. Inter-nodal explants from both the cultivars were incubated for 1420wks in callus inducing medium comprising MS salts supplemented with NAA (1.0mg/l) and BAP (0.5mg/l) for obta...

Potato virus Y (PVY) and Potato mop-top virus (PMTV) are viruses whose geographical distribution is expanding and economic losses are increasing, in contrast to most of other viruses infecting potato crops. Most potato cultivars lack broad-spectrum resistance to the new, genetically complex strains of PVY, and no efficient resistance to PMTV is known in potato. Control of the vectors of these v...

Studies have shown that potato consumption in Norway have been on the decline in recent years. Increase in income and the association of potato consumption with weight gain and chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes have been identified as some of the factors responsible for the change. The aim of this study was to describe the change in potato consumption within persons and how non-dietary vari...

Colorado potato beetles have been reared successfully through 12 generations on artificial diets containing either 2.5% potato leaf powder or 2.5% lettuce leaf powder/0.75% potato leaf powder. For all but one of the treatment groups, the mean duration of each of the four larval stages was between 0.8 and 1.5 days longer than the durations exhibited by control beetles that had been fed on potato...