Scots growers want blight-resistant spud

Trials of potatoes with new genes giving resistance to late blight have shown that the plants can thrive despite being exposed to a disease that has been known to devastate Scottish potato crops. The resistant potato is being trialled at Sainsbury’s labroratory in Norwich, along with Dutch colleagues at Wageningen University. Scientists say the gene targets elicitin, a conserved protein with an important biological function, making it less likely that blight will evolve to evade the inbuilt resistance. More