Scientists lay bare Irish potato famine blight * The Register - 0 views
www.theregister.co.uk/...blight_genome_sequenced
irish potato famine potato blight history science behind the blight irish
shared by jbdrury on 02 Oct 09
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jbdrury on 02 Oct 09As you can see in the title, The Register is a science and IT periodical based in the U.K.
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Scientists have successfully sequenced the genome of Phytophthora infestans - the potato blight mould which in the 1840s devasted Irish potato crops, leading to the deaths of one million people.
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The mould still afflicts potatoes, tomatoes and related plants, and costs farmers around the world an estimated $6.7bn a year."
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The scientists believe the transposons - comprising a whopping 74 per cent of the genome - allow the mould to quickly evolve to defeat genetic countermeasures intended to stop it in its tracks
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With all this knowledge about how the pathogen attacks the host on the biochemical level, I would hope that some clever plant pathologist would be able to genetically engineer resistance.
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This is the most watered-down, non-scientific explanation of the genome sequencing project on the potato blight that caused the Irish Potato Famine. It's pretty interesting in-and-of-itself, and I think studying a subject like this provides a unique opportunity to coordinate curricula with the science department of your school.