Cloning disease resistance genes against late blight of potato

Late blight, a major disease of potato and tomato caused by Phytophthora infestans still poses a great threat to potato and tomato production. The deployment of resistance (R) genes in breeding programs has a potential to be a more sustainable and durable way of protecting plants from late blight than chemical control. We recently demonstrated that Solanum americanum is a new source of resistance genes against P. infestans. We applied RenSeq (Resistant gene Enrichment and Sequencing) method in combination with Illumina and PacBio sequencing technologies in F2 bulk susceptible as well as in resistant and susceptible parents. Mapping and SNP calling pipelines identified Rpi as a candidate gene responsible for resistance to P. infestans.