Disease-defying spuds exiled from Europe – again

It won't be a case of second time lucky. A second strain of potatoes genetically modified to resist blight has been developed, but widespread opposition to such crops means the spuds are unlikely to be grown in Europe. Developers of the previous strain failed to obtain approval after years of trying.

Late potato blight is a disease caused by a fungus-like organism called Phytophthora infestans. It was responsible for the Irish potato famine of the 1840s, and still destroys ?3.5 billion worth of potatoes globally each year.

In 2007 the German multinational BASF conducted field trials on a strain of GM potatoes called Fortuna that was resistant to late blight. But, after years of struggling to obtain approval to grow GM potatoes in Europe, the company abandoned all its applications in 2012. BASF has since moved all its plant science research to North Carolina.

Now British scientists have created Desiree potatoes that carry a gene which makes them resistant to late blight. The gene was isolated from a South American potato species. In field tests the potatoes were unharmed by late blight, while all control plants were infected, leading to a doubling in yield from the GM spuds.

However, Europe's strict regulations on GM crops mean that the potatoes are unlikely to be grown there. "It's very dispiriting," says team leader Jonathan Jones of the John Innes Centre in Norwich, UK.

Instead, the gene technology behind the resistant potatoes will be developed commercially in the US by Simplot of Boise, Idaho. "We've licensed the technology to Simplot, and they've made new varieties of Maris Piper and Desiree potatoes carrying our blight-resistance gene," says Jones.