Grants and Contributions:

Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year. (2017-2018 to 2018-2019)

Semences Élites du Québec Inc. is a producer of elite seed potatoes located in a protected area. As such, potatox000D
late blight, caused by Phytophthora infestans, represent a constant threat that they must keep under control inx000D
order to keep their certification. Potato late blight is usually controlled through an intense fungicide sprayx000D
regime, which raises serious health and environmental issues, and is not option for seed potato growers inx000D
protected areas and/or organic producers. The use of resistant varieties represents one of the mostx000D
environmentally-friendly alternative, still none of the potato varieties commercially available in Canada havex000D
adequate levels of resistance against late blight. This project aims at characterizing advanced potato varietiesx000D
from Semences Élites du Québec Inc. to identify those harboring multiple genes of resistance against latex000D
blight. This will be achieved through the use of molecular markers linked with known resistance genes,x000D
together with a state-of-the-art effectoromics approach, which consist of directly testing the ability of a givenx000D
variety to recognize a particular avirulence gene from the pathogen. This last approach could result in thex000D
identification of novel or unknown sources of resistance, and will be helpful to identify resistance genes forx000D
which molecular markers do not exist. Identifying resistant varieties for release will help the company maintainx000D
phytosanitary conditions in protected areas, as well as allowing them to select resistant varieties forx000D
propagation and final stages of field testing.