Potato late blight is a potentially devastating fungal disease that has affected agriculture for hundreds of years. Potato late blight is thought to have originated in Mexico before spreading throughout the world. For example, potato late blight was a major contributing factor to the Irish potato famine of 1845. Today, late blight is re-emerging as a serious concern to potato producers due to its increasing resistance to commonly used fungicides. In addition, new forms of late blight recently have migrated from Mexico, where late blight originated, to the United States and other parts of the world.

Since the mid-1990s, the Research and Scientific Exchanges Division (RSED) of USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service has invested heavily in international collaborative research on potato late blight. RSED has funded several scientists in a wide network of institutions, including ARS/Washington State University, ARS/University of Wisconsin, Cornell University, PICTIPAPA in Mexico, the Plant Breeding and Acclimatization Institute in Poland, and the Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry in Russia.

RSED, as well as the larger international research community, will greatly benefit from a dialogue on what we have learned thus far about potato late blight and how we can work collaboratively and strategically on future potato late blight research.

The proposed three-day international workshop is jointly sponsored by RSED, the Cornell-Eastern Europe-Mexico (CEEM) partnership, and the Mlochów Research Center, Plant Breeding and Acclimatization Institute (IHAR), Poland. CIP will serve as moderator and reviewer of the workshop. CIP will also be responsible for producing the synthesis/strategy paper for future collaboration.

June 6, Wednesday
Workshop location: Hotel Gromada, Conference Room ALilia@ Plac Powstancow Warszawy 2 00-030 Warsaw, Poland, Tel: (48-22) 625-15-45, Fax: (48-22) 625-21-40

8:30-9:00 USDA/FAS Review Committee meets with members from CIP, Cornell University, IHAR, VIR, etc.

9:00-9:15 Welcome remarks by Carol Kramer LeBlanc, USDA/FAS

9:15-9:30 Welcome remarks by K.V. Raman/W. Ronnie Coffman, CEEM

9:30-9:45 Welcome remarks by Henryk Czembor, Director, IHAR andEwa Zimnoch-Guzowska, IHAR

10:00-17:30 Presentation and review of FAS funded projects
Moderator: Carol Kramer-LeBlanc, USDA/FAS Reviewer: CIP

10:00-10:45 Héctor Lozoya-Saldaña, PICTIPAPA,“Genetic Studies and Breeding of Stable Late Blight Resistance of Potato in the U.S. and Mexico”

10:45-11:30 Debbie Inglis, Washington State University, “Development of a gene map of foliar resistance to late blight derived from the Mexican wild species Solamum hougassii”

11:30-12:30 Lunch Break

12:30-13:15 Horvath, Pannon University, Hungary and Hanneman, USDA/ARS, “Genetic studies on potato late blight resistance”

13:15- 14:00 M. T. Sieczka, IHAR and Charles Brown, USDA/ARS, “Identification of potatoes resistant to new strains of late blight”

14:15-15:00 Ewa Zimnoch-Guzowska, IHAR and Charles Brown, USDA/ARS, “Diploid potatoes with high starch content and resistance to Erwinia spp”

15:00-15:45 Ewa Zimnoch-Guzowska, IHAR/Nadezhda Zoteyeva, IHAR, VIR, “Collaborative Research with Russian Scientist to Enhance potato late blight resistance mediated by Poland's Plant Breeding and Acclimatization Institute”

15:45–16:45 William E. Fry, Cornell University and Leslie Dowley, TEAGASC, “Assessing the risk of resistance development to new and established fungicides in a sexually and asexually reproducing population of Phytophthora infestans”

2:45–17:00 Coffee Break

17:00-18:00 Summary comments by reviewer and discussion 19:00 Dinner: Location: TBA

June 7, Thursday

7:45 Trip to the Mlochow Research Center, Transportation: arranged by organizers

8:30-11:30 Visit Mlochow Research Center (lab, greenhouses, exp. field), and group photo

11:30-12:15 Return to Warsaw

12:15- 13:30 Lunch break

13:30-17:00 Presentations by Polish and Russian scientists, Moderator: Ewa Zimnoch-Guzowska, IHAR

13:30-14:00 Nadezhda Zoteyeva, VIR, “Reconstruction of VIR's wild species collection combined with its characteristics for late blight resistance"

14:00-14:20 M. Chrzanowska, IHAR, “Characteristics of Polish potato cultivars, their resistance to pathogens and reaction to virus infection”

14:20-15:05 Alexei Filippov, VNIIF/William E. Fry, Cornell University, “Populations of Phytophthora infestans and potato resistance”

15:05-15:30 Coffee break15:30–16:15 Ewa Zimnoch-Guzowska and M. T. Sieczka, IHAR, “Harmonizing breeding research for resistance to Potato Late blight in Eastern Europe -new proposal for Eastern Europe CEENP project submitted to USDA/FAS”

16:15–16:30 Coffee break 16:35-18:00 Summary comments by reviewer and discussion 19:00 Dinner Location: TBA

June 8, Friday
8:30-11:30 Partnerships and Collaborations: where do we go from here?
Discussion by all participants. Moderator: TBA (remarks about GILB to open up global discussion) Rapporteur: Reviewers

11:30-12:00 Lunch

12:00- 16:30 Frito Lay trip, Transportation: arranged by organizers 16:30- 17:00 Presentation of draft report and recommendations as a summary to the workshop.