Blackleg Project (Current Role)
Building a Decision Support Tool for Potato Blackleg Disease (DeS-BL)
Image of diseased potato.
Blackleg disease is a soft rot disease of potatoes caused by the pathogen Pectobacterium atrosepticum. It can be a devastating disease for potato growers in the UK (up to £50 M losses per year). The ‘Building a Decision Support Tool for Potato Blackleg Disease (DeS-BL)’ grant is an ambitious cross-disciplinary research program led by Prof. Ian Toth at the James Hutton Institute.
At the University of Glasgow, the team consists of myself, Prof. Barbara Mable, Dr Joel Milner, and Dr Umer Ijaz. We also collaborate with Prof. Dan Walker and Dr Ray Chai. We cover Work Package 3 of the DeS-Bl grant. Here, we have two main objectives:
To find out how agricultural practices (irrigation, cover crop planting, and nematicide treatment) influence Pectobacterium and the surrounding soil microbial species.
To identify bacteriocins (specialist antimicrobial compounds) for use in blackleg biocontrol.
Click the links below to learn more!
Action of bacteriocins - antimicrobial compounds produced by bacteria to kill their close relatives so that they may occupy a competitive niche space.
