Allelic diversity of the population of Phytophthora infestans in China

Introduction of resistance genes from wild Solanum species into potato cultivars is considered the most promising and environmentally safe approach to achieve late blight resistance. An R-gene stacking breeding program using cisgenesis is planning to trial its products in China. To adapt this approach to local conditions, we propose to assess the allelic diversity of known avirulent genes of P. infestans from the intended introduction regions of the GM-potatoes in China. So far, we have a large (~100 isolates) and geographically diverse collection of P. infestans. We measured diversity in the isolates based on sequences and functions of several known Avr genes. The work relied on molecular and modern computer tools to examine the dynamics of the pathogen population structure and evolutionary relationships among different genotypes. We aim to give an ecological assessment of the Chinese population of P. infestans, which would be a guideline for the release of cisgenetic plants with stacked R genes