What is it about?
This study evaluates two competing hypotheses about where the origin of the potato late blight pathogen Phytophthora infestans originated.
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Why is it important?
The potato late blight pathogen was introduced to Europe in the 1840s and caused the devastating loss of a staple crop, resulting in the Irish potato famine and subsequent diaspora. Research on this disease has engendered much debate, which in recent years has focused on whether the geographic origin of the pathogen is South America or central Mexico. Different lines of evidence support each hypothesis. We sequenced four nuclear genes in representative samples from Mexico and the South American
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This page is a summary of: The Irish potato famine pathogen
Phytophthora infestans
originated in central Mexico rather than the Andes, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, June 2014, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1401884111.
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Irish potato famine pathogen originated Mexico
Settling a long-established debate over the origin of Phytophthora infestans – the pathogen that led to the Irish potato famine in the 1840s – plant scientists now conclude from genetic analyses that it came from central Mexico and not the Andes.
Tracking potato famine pathogen to its home may aid $6 billion global fight
The cause of potato late blight and the Great Irish Famine of the 1840s has been tracked to a pretty, alpine valley in central Mexico, which is ringed by mountains and now known to be the ancestral home of one of the most costly and deadly plant diseases in human history.
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