As a result, efforts to expand the biological diversity of the commercial potato crop are constrained. In preliminary experiments conducted under a cooperative research and development agreement, Small Potatoes scientists and ARS researchers found that the antiglycoalkaloid genes significantly lowered glycoalkaloid production in potatoes in field tests. An ARS team in Albany, CA, built the new genes, which have also been tested in Idaho and Wisconsin. The genes are a backward, or antisense form of a natural gene. In nature, the unaltered gene cues potato plants to form an enzyme critical to production of a key glycoalkaloid.
Potatoes are America's favorite vegetable.
With Ajay North America, LLC, Powder Springs, GA, to further improve strategies for controlling diseases in strawberries, blackberries and muscadine grapes. ARS researchers will evaluate the effectiveness of two new fungicides developed by Ajay to control major fungal diseases of strawberry, blackberry and muscadine grape. Small fruit growers suffer huge losses annually from crops thwarted by diseases such as anthracnose of strawberry, rosette of blackberry and berry rot diseases of muscadine grapes. These diseases limit production of high-quality fruits in these crops. Anthracnose is the most important fungal disease of strawberries in the U.S. southeastern region.