Ireland's Great Hunger, 1845-1849. (potato famine) (Editorial) The New York Times March 17, 1995 v144 pA14(N)pA28(L) col 1 (6 col in)  The Irish revisit the terrible 1840's. (Corofin, Ireland; potato farmers reflect on the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the potato famine) (International Pages) James F. Clarity.  The New York Times Feb 20, 1995 v144 pA4(N) pA4(L) col 1 (22 col in)

'Fungus fatale' poses a threat to potato crop. (Phytophthora infestans) Ron Winslow.  The Wall Street Journal Jan 18, 1995 pB1(W) pB1(E) col 6 (22 col in)

A virulent potato fungus is killing the Northeast crop; farmers are hunting seeds free of disease. (New York State) Harold Faber.  The New York Times Nov 12, 1994 v144 p26(L) col 5 (22 col in)

BioScience, June 1993 v43 n6 p369(4) The magnificent devastator gets around. (problems that might arise as a result of sexual reproduction in the potato pathogen) Anna Maria Gillis. Brief Summary: Potato blight is a disease caused by the pathogen, P. infestans,which is capable of both asexual and sexual reproduction. The latter occurs by participation of both A1 and A2 mating types. Research has shown that the A2 isolates may be displacing the A1 types and that reproduction is shifting towards a sexual trend. The repercussions in terms of genetic selection for clones of greater fitness are discussed.

Discover, Oct 1994 v15 n10 p18(2)
Brave new potato. (engineered potato resists Phytophthora blight by activating gene for the fungus-fighting protein osmotin)  BY THE TIME IRELAND'S TERRIBLE potato famine of 1845 had run its course, 1 million people had starved to death. Survivors recalled seeing people dying by the roadside, their mouths stuffed with grass. The cause of the suffering was a virulent fungus known as late blight disease, or Phytophthora infestans, which had attacked Ireland's staple crop. Late blight fungus thrives in cool, damp conditions, producing black or purple lesions on a potato plant's leaves and stem and leaving it unable to photosynthesize. In a matter of days a slimy, smelly rot covers the potato itself.  One hundred and fifty years later, Phytophthora still poses a real threat to the world's potato crops. Although the blight can usually be controlled with fungicides, new, resistant strains sometimes prove immune to spraying. But now researchers at Purdue have genetically engineered a potato plant that may be able to outwit the fungus--at least temporarily. The Purdue potato's secret weapon is a protein called osmotin that is produced by many plants--including potatoes--in response to stress. Osmotin is thought to attack fungi by forming pores in their membranes, allowing the cell contents to leak out. Although potato plants already have the gene for osmotin, it isn't switched on until the disease is well established. (The fungus is apparently a few steps ahead of the potato in the evolutionary arms race.) So the Purdue researchers used an osmotin gene that had already been isolated from tobacco plants and attached it to a promoter, a DNA sequence that activates the gene and allows it to be turned on continuously. "The promoter makes the plants produce this protein at very high levels--higher than normal--and all the time," says Ray Bressan, the Purdue plant biologist who led the research. "You don't have to wait for the disease to come along." Using a bacterium that infects potato plants--mutated so that it was incapable of causing disease--Bressan and his colleagues inserted the modified gene into potato plant cell cultures.  The resulting new potato plants are not immune to late blight. But instead of dying in three to four days, as most potato plants would, they last an extra day or two. That day of grace may save the plants if the weather changes from cold and wet to warm and dry, because the fungus stops growing in such conditions. It would also give farmers more time to spray after the blight's first appearance, allowing them to save more of their crop.

Maclean's, August 5, 1996 v109 n32 p27(1) Threatened spuds. (a potato blight called Phytophthora infestans has caused major damage to crops in Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island)(Agriculture) Potato farmers in Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island are battling a fungus similar to, and possibly more potent than, the one that decimated crops in Ireland in 1845 and 1846, leading to the great Irish potato famine. Known as Phytophthora infestans, or potato blight, the fungus thrives in the wet and warm weather that has hit much of Canada this summer. Once harvested, the infested potatoes quickly turn to mush. Stopping the infestation requires frequent and expensive spraying of fungicide, or plowing under the crop, which several farmers in Ontario and Prince Edward Island have been forced to do. Scientists have traced this latest strain to the infestation of Mexican crops of the 1970s. It  has since spread north and cost farmers millions of dollars. Wayne Dorsey, chairman of the Fresh Potato Growers of Ontario, said farmers are "on guard and concerned."
  
Natural History, Jan 1996 v105 n1 p33(3)  How politics fed the famine. (Ireland's Great Famine of 1845-52) Christine Kinealy.  Abstract: Ireland's Great Famine of 1845-52 was caused not only by the potato blight but also by the failure of Britain's government and its rich landlords and merchants to address the problem and pursue an effective course of action.

The Economist, Nov 20, 1993 v329 n7838 p105(1)  Sexual revolution: potato blight. (spread of potato disease)  Brief Summary: The late blight disease that once destroyed the Irish potato crop in the 1840s is once again being found around the world. The disease spreads through sexually active type A1 and A2 potato fungi. The blight began in Mexico but has spread far and wide, destroying crops as far as India and China.