Engineered resistance against filamentous pathogens in Solanum tuberosum

Potato is one of the most important noncereal crops in the world today, and like other major crops, it is prone to substantial yield losses because of various factors including disease. Recent molecular advancements in plant-pathogen studies have led to the identification of various host genes involved in the plant's defense against pathogen attack. These genes may encode antimicrobial peptides, enzymes for phytoalexin production, proteins involved in defense-signaling cascades, and hydrolytic enzymes or pathogenesis-related proteins that are directly or indirectly responsible for the plant's defense responses following a pathogen attack. A plant's disease-resistance (R) genes are another important group of genes that have been used with varying degrees of success in crop improvement programs. Cloning and characterization of these genes and the dissection of signal-transduction components of the defense response have greatly increased the scope for transgenic disease resistance. This article highlights the current scenario and potential of the molecular approaches to improve resistance against filamentous pathogens in potato.