After the famine: Plant pathology, Phytophthora infestans, and the late blight of potatoes, 1845-1960

Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences

Volumn 35, Issue 2, 2005, Pages 341-370

  Turner, R Steven ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF NEW BRUNSWICK   (Canada)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

FUNGI; PHYTOPHTHORA INFESTANS; SOLANUM TUBEROSUM;

EID: 27644473231     PISSN: 08909997     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1525/hsps.2005.35.2.341     Document Type: Review

References (142)

1. On the introduction into Europe, Redcliffe N. Salaman, The history and social influence of the potato, 2nd edn. [1949] (Cambridge, 1985), 51-100, 142-158;
2. on the adoption and cultural response, Larry Zuckerman, The potato: How the humble spud rescued the western world (Boston and London, 1998), 17-183;
3. on the impact of the potato, William H. McNeill, "How the potato changed the world's history," Social research, 66:1 (1999), 67-83.
4. James Lang, Notes of a potato watcher (College Station, Texas, 2001), 142-143.
5. Cormac Ó Gráda, Black '47 and beyond. The great Irish famine in history, economy, and memory (Princeton, 1999), esp. 37-47;
6. John Percival, The great famine. Ireland's potato famine, 1845-1851 (London, 1995);
7. Christine Kinealy, The great Irish famine: Impact, ideology and rebellion (New York, 2002);
8. Simon Schama, A history of Britain. The fate of empire 1776-2000 (Toronto, 2002), 295-309;
9. Lang (ref. 2), 135-144;
10. James S. Donnelly, Jr., The great Irish potato famine (Phoenix Mill, 2001), 1-40.
11. Bärbel Schöber-Butin, Die Kraut- und Braunfäule der Kartoffel und ihr Erreger Phytophthora infestans (Mont. de Bary) (Berlin, 2001) (Biologische Bundesanstalt für Land- und Forstwirtschaft Berlin-Dahlem, Mitteilungen, vol. 384).
12. Schöber-Butin (ref. 4), 6-13. Potatoes are universally propagated vegetatively from "seed" potatoes saved from the previous year's crop, and not from the true seed that may be formed in the berry, if fertilization should occur.
13. Austin Bourke, "Potato blight in Europe in 1845: The scientific controversy," Phytophthora. Symposium of the British Mycological Society, the British Society for Plant Pathology and the Society of Irish Plant Pathologists held at Trinity College, Dublin September 1989, eds. J.A. Lucas, Richard C. Shattock, David S. Shaw, and Louise R. Cooke (Cambridge, 1991), 12-24;
14. Stefan T. Buczacki, "The Reverend Miles Berkeley," Phytophthora. Symposium of the British Mycological Society, the British Society for Plant Pathology and the Society of Irish Plant Pathologists Held at Trinity College, Dublin September 1989, ibid., 1-11;
15. E. Charles Nelson, "David Moore, Miles J. Berkeley and scientific studies of potato blight in Ireland, 1845-1847," Archives of natural history, 11:2 (1983), 249-261.
16. Heinrich Antoine de Bary, Die gegenwärtig herrschende Kartoffelkrankheit, ihre Ursache und ihre Verhütung. Eine pflanzenphysiologische Untersuchung (Leipzig, 1861);
17. Gloria Robinson, "de Bary, (Heinrich) Anton," Dictionary of scientific biography, ed. Charles C. Gillispie, 16 vols. (New York, 1971), 3, 611-614.
18. Heinrich Antoine de Bary, "Researches into the nature of the potato-fungus-Phytophthorea infestans" Royal Agricultural Society of England, Journal, 12 (1876), 239-269;
19. Ernest Charles Large, The advance of the fungi [1940] (New York, 1962), 167-168;
20. Geoffrey Clough Ainsworth, Introduction to the history of plant pathology (Cambridge, 1981), 54-75. Today the Phytophthora genus is placed in the Family Pythiaceae.
21. George Perkins Clinton, "Oospores of the potato blight fungus," Science, 33 (1911), 744-747;
22. Lewis Ralph Jones, Nathan James Giddings, and Benjamin Franklin Lutman, Investigations of the potato fungus Phytophthora Infestans (Washington, 1912), Bulletin No. 245 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Plant Industry;
23. George H. Pethybridge and Paul A. Murphy, "On pure cultures of Phytophthora infestons de Bary, and the development of oospores," Royal Dublin Society, Scientific proceedings, 13 (1913), 566-588;
24. Paul A. Murphy, "The production of the resting-spores of Phytophthora infestans on potato tubers," ibid., 18(1921), 407-412;
25. Helena L. G. de Bruyn, "The overwintering of Phytophthora infestans (Mont.) de Bary," Phytopathology, 16 (1926), 121-140;
26. Ainsworth (ref. 8), 55;
27. Large (ref. 8), 15-17, 210-211, 346-355, 404;
28. Schöber-Butin (ref. 4), 17-19.
29. Ainsworth (ref. 8), 136-137;
30. Large (ref. 8), 240-245;
31. F. Krlpin Ravn, "Jens Ludwig Jensen (1836-1904)," Phytopathology, 7:1 (Feb 1917), 1-4;
32. Jensen, "Lifting and storing of potatoes," Gardeners' chronicle (30 Sep 1882), 429-430.
33. George McNew, "Landmarks during a century of progress in use of chemicals to control plant diseases," Plant pathology. Problems and progress, 1908-1958, ed. Charles. S. Holton et al. (Madison, 1959), 42-43;
34. Ainsworth (ref. 8), 108-114, 112-121;
35. Large (ref. 8), 225-239, 261-271, 330-333.
36. Potatoes are today classified in the genus Solanum, which contains 900 species, 235 of which bear tubers. Seven of these tuber-bearing species have been cultivated for millennia in South America, mostly in the Andes. One of those seven species is Solanum tuberosum, which exists in two cultivated subspecies: S. tuberosum subsp. andigena (adapted to short days), and S. tuberosum subsp. tuberosum (adapted to long days). Today all cultivated potatoes outside South America are varieties of S. tuberosum subsp. tuberosum. The 228 wild species range from Colorado in the North to central Chili and Argentina in the South, with one center of diversity in the highlands of Peru and Bolivia and another in Mexico. John Gregory Hawkes, The potato. Evolution, biodiversity and genetic resources (London, 1990), 1-10;
37. Salaman (ref. 1). 51-52, 142-158.
38. Earl Cathcart, "On the cultivated potato," Agricultural Society of England, Journal, 20 (1884), 266-300;
39. Karl-Otto Müller, "Über die Herkunft der W-Sorten, ihre Entwicklungsgeschichte und ihre bisherige Nutzung in der praktischen Kartoffelzüchtung," Zeitschrift für Pflanzenzüchtung, 29 (1951), 366-387.
40. Dalton R. Glendinning, "Potato introductions and breeding up to the early 20th century," New phytologist, 94 (1983), 479-505;
41. Hans Ross, Potato breeding-problems and perspectives (Berlin and Hamburg, 1986), 18-21;
42. Large (ref. 8), 160, 440;
43. Salaman (ref. 1), 164-71, 175-76;
44. Pierre Berthault, Recherches botaniques sur les variétés cultivés du Solanum tuberosum et les espèces sauvages de solanum tubérifères voisins (Nancy, 1911).
45. Edward Monroe Freeman, "Phytopathology - and its future," Phytopathology, 26 (1936), 76-82;
46. George Herbert Coons, "Progress in plant pathology: Control of diseases by resistant varieties," Phytopathology, 27 (1937), 622-632.
47. Sergei Mikhailovich Bukasov, "The problems of potato breeding," American potato journal, 13 (1936), 235-252.
48. Ainsworth (ref. 8), 63-75;
49. Large (ref. 8), 415-439;
50. Sally Smith Hughes, The virus: A history of the concept (London, 1977).
51. Ainsworth (ref. 8), 197-227;
52. Freeman, (ref. 15);
53. Tom H. Anstey, One hundred harvests. Research Branch, Agriculture Canada, 1886-1986. Research Branch, Agriculture Canada, Historical Series No 27, 1986. Ottawa: Ministry of Supply and Services Canada, 1986);
54. Ibra Lockwood Conners, ed., Plant pathology in Canada (Winnipeg, 1972);
55. Ralph H. Estey, Essays on the early history of plant pathology and mycology in Canada (Montreal and Kingston, 1994), esp. 42-73, 167-174, 215-220, 306-313.
56. Ainsworth (ref. 8), 179-94;
57. Large (ref. 8), 353-77;
58. Estey (ref. 18), 42-73.
59. Coons (ref. 15), 622.
60. Coons (ref. 15), 622;
61. Ainsworth (ref. 8), 162-166;
62. Large (ref. 8), 292-320.
63. On hybrid corn Jack R. Kloppenburg, Jr., First the seed. The political economy of plant biotechnology, 1492-2000 (Cambridge, 1988), 66-71, 91-129.
64. Ainsworth (ref. 8), 48-51;
65. Large (ref. 8), 444-445;
66. Anstey (ref. 18), chapt. 17, "Crops research."
67. Desmond Painter, "Redcliffe and Raphael Salaman: A memoir," History workshop journal, 40 (1995), 276-282.
68. Cecelia O'Connor, "Potato breeding and resistance to late blight," Gardeners' chronicle (11 Feb 1933). 104-105.
69. A number of USDA centers, including that run by Fred Alfred Krantz and L.G. Leach at St. Paul, Minnesota, pursued a selfing and selection rather than an outcrossing strategy. Donald Reddick, "Development of blight-immune varieties," American potato journal, 20 (1943), 118-126.
70. A spectrum of differences also existed among these early breeding programs according to their position on the research development axis orientation. A valuable source on early American potato research programs is Donald J. MacLeod and Louis C. Young, Report of trip to institutions in the United States in connection with co-operative potato breeding project, 1934 (Unpublished typescript, Library of the Canadian Potato Research Centre, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, 57 pp.).
71. Hawkes (ref. 12), 200-204;
72. also see Bukasov (ref. 16).
73. W.A. Rybin, "Karyologische Untersuchungen an einigen wilden und einheimischen kultivierten Kartoffeln Amerikas," Zeitschrift für induktive Abstammungs- und Vererbungslehre, 53 (1930), 313-354;
74. Hugh B. Smith, "Chromosome counts in the varieties of Solanum tuberosum and allied wild species," Genetics, 12 (1927), 84-92.
75. William Black, "Inheritance of resistance to two stains of blight...in potatoes," Royal Society of Edinburgh, Transactions, 61 (1943), 137-147. At that time Black still assumed the basic chromosome number of the potato to be six.
76. Schöber-Butin (ref. 4), 31.
77. Karl-Otto Müller and William Black, "Potato breeding for resistance to blight and virus diseases during the last hundred years," Zeitschrift für Pflanzenzüchtung, 31 (1952), 305-318;
78. Ross (ref. 14), 18-21;
79. Glendinning (ref. 14), 479-505;
80. Hawkes (ref. 12), 198-211;
81. Salaman (ref. 1), 159-187.
82. The first release by the USDA National Potato Breeding Program was Katahdin in 1932, not particularly disease resistant, but an excellent crossing partner due its abundant fertile pollen and excellent agronomic qualities. Ross (ref. 14), 18-21.
83. Harold Henry Flor's gene-for-gene theory, introduced to explain the specificity of the match between R-genes, races, and their combinations, appears not to have been much discussed much by potato scientists during this period. H.H. Flor, "Inheritance of pathogenicity in Melampsora lini," Phytopathology, 32 (1942), 653-659;
84. Flor, "Host-Parasite interaction in flax rust," Phytopathology, 45 (1954), 680-685,
85. Clayton Person et al., "The gene-for-gene concept," Nature, 194 (12 May 1962), 561-563;
86. Müller and Black (ref. 30), 311.
87. Radcliffe N. Salaman, "Potato variety production: A new departure," Gardeners' chronicle (30 Oct 1937), 326-327;
88. Müller and Black (ref. 30), 311.
89. Donald Reddick, "Elimination of potato late blight from North America?" Phytopathology, 24 (1934), 555-557.
90. Donald Reddick and Wilford Mills, "Building up virulence in Phytophthora infestans," American potato journal, 15 (1938), 29-34, on 33.
91. Annual report. USDA Bureau of Plant Industry, National Potato Breeding Program, 1947, 103, and 1948, 103-105.
92. The annual reports, issued by the U.S. Horticultural Station, Beltsville, MD, take the form of mimeographed typescripts, 50-200 pp. long, marked "Not for publication."
93. NPBD, Annual report (ref. 35), 1949, 1-2.
94. J. Lorne Howatt, "The late blight disease of potatoes and its causal fungus in Canada," American potato journal, 34 (1957), 185-192;
95. J. Lorne Howatt and William A. Hodgson, "Testing for late blight resistance in the potato in Canada," American potato journal, 31 (1954), 129-140;
96. Steven Turner and Heather Molyneaux, "Agricultural science, potato breeding, and the Fredericton Experimental Station, 1912-1966," Acadiensis, 33:2 (Spring 2004), 44-67.
97. NPBD, Annual report (ref. 36), 1950, 1-2, 154; 1951, 2, 174-176; 1953, 224-227; 1954, 1-3, 203-206.
98. Raymond B. Fosdick, The story of the Rockefeller Foundation (New York, 1952), 181-191.
99. Arthur A. Goldsmith, "The Rockefeller Foundation Indian agricultural program: Why it worked," in Soma Hewa and Philo Hove, eds., Philanthropy and cultural context. Western philanthropy in South, East, and Southeast Asia in the 20th century (New York, 1997), 85-114.
100. John S. Niederhauser, "International cooperation in potato research and development," Annual review of phytopathology, 31 (1993), 1-21;
101. Laureate citation, The World Food Prize Foundation (www.worldfoodprize. org/Laureates/Past/1990.htm).
102. Niederhauser (ref. 41), 4-5;
103. John S. Niederhauser, "Potato late blight in Mexico" (unpublished msc. from the 1990s), "Preface," a-c.
104. Wilford R. Mills and John S. Niederhauser, "Observations on races of Phytophthora infestons in Mexico," Phytopathology, 43 (1953), 454-457.
105. Mills and Niederhauser (ref. 43), 454-55;
106. Niederhauser (ref. 41), 4-5, 8-12;
107. John S. Niederhauser, Javier Cervantes, and Leopolde Servin, "Late blight in Mexico and its implications," Phytopathology, 44 (1954), 406-408.
108. Mannon E. Gallegly and John S. Niederhauser, "Genetic controls of host-parasite interactions in the Phytophthora late blight disease," in Holton et al. (ref. 11), 168-182.
109. The correlation of field resistance with late maturity was increasingly seen as an artifact of screening procedures; see Louis C. Young and Donald A. Young, "A study of the multi-genie type of resistance to Phytophthora infestons," American potato journal, 35 (1958), 449.
110. John S. Niederhauser and Wilford R. Mills, "Resistance of Solanum species to Phytophthora infestans in Mexico," Phytopathology, 43 (1953), 456-457;
111. Niederhauser et al. (ref. 44), 408.
112. John S. Niederhauser, "The blight, the blighter, and the blighted," New York Academy of Sciences, Transactions, 19 (1956), 55-63, on 58.
113. Large (ref. 8), 156-157. Large's informed discussion of P. infestans, completed in 1939, makes no mention of any speculations about the possible heterothallic nature of P. infestans.
114. Niederhauser (ref. 47), 55-63. The publication contains a note that "this article is paper No. 50 of the Agricultural Journal of the Rockefeller Foundation, New York, N.Y.," and that "this paper, illustrated with lantern slides, was presented at a meeting of the Division of Mycology on October 26, 1956."
115. John Jones Smoot, Francis Jacob Gough, Howard Arthur Lamey, John J. Eichenmuller, and Manon E. Gallegly, "Production and germination of oospores of Phytophthora infestans" Phytopathology, 48 (1958), 165-171;
116. Mannon E. Gallegly and Jorge Galindo, "Mating types and oospores of Phytophthora Infestans in nature in Mexico," Phytopathology, 48 (1958), 274-277;
117. Jorge Galindo and Mannon E. Gallegly, "The nature of sexuality in Phytophthora Infestans," Phytopathology, 50 (1960), 123-28;
118. Mannon E. Gallegly and John J. Eichenmuller, "The spontaneous appearance of the potato race 4 character in cultures of Phytophthora infestons" American potato journal, 36 (1959), 45-51.
119. Gallegly and Niederhauser (ref. 45) survey the state of late blight science in the late 1950s.
120. David S. Shaw, "The Peronosporales. A fungal geneticist's nightmare," in S.T. Buczacki, ed., Zoosporic plant pathogens: A modern perspective (London, 1983), 85-121.
121. Cf. the somber assessment of John Charles Walker in his "Progress and problems in controlling plant diseases by host resistance," in Holton (ref. 11), 32-41.
122. Ross (ref. 14), 84;
123. Hermann Stegemann and Dieter Schnick. "Index 1985 europäischer Kartoffelsorten, "Biologische Bundesanstalt, Braunschweig, Mitteilungen, 227 (1985), 128.
124. Ross (ref. 14), 82-88;
125. Schöber-Butin (ref. 4), 30-39.
126. Ainsworth (ref. 8), 54-75, 112-115, 150-152;
127. Large (ref. 8), 405-406.
128. McNew (ref. 8), 50;
129. and the figures based on farming practices in Eastern Canada by Turner and Molyneaux (ref. 37), 44-67.
130. H.W. (Bud) Platt et al., "Sustaining potato crop, land, and industry health beyond the year 2000: Current issues and future needs. A symposium presentation of the Potato Association of America pathology section," American journal of potato research, 77 (2000), 333-352,"
131. esp. George R. Mackay, "Basic and applied research needs for sustained crop health of the potato," 334-338;
132. P. C. Struick, et al., "Forty years of potato research: highlights, achievements and prospects," Potato research, 40 (1997), 5-18;
133. David S. Douches et al., "Assessment of potato breeding progress in the USA over the last century," Crop science, 36 (1996), 1544-1552.
134. http://worldfoodprize.org/Laureates/Past/1990.htm;
135. Bruce H. Jennings, Foundations of international agricultural research. Science and politics in Mexican agriculture (Boulder and London, 1988), 185-193, on 185;
136. "The blight is back," Seedling, the quarterly newsletter of the genetic resources action international, Oct 1995, www.grain.org/publications/ oct952-en.cfm (original in RAFI(Rural Advancement Foundation International) Occasional papers series, 2:6 (Aug 1995), 1-14.
137. Marc Ghislain, et al., "Resistence to potato late blight: A global research priority," Biotechnology and development monitor, 31 (1997), 14-16;
138. Hubert G. Zandstra, "Twenty-five years of international potato research, a retrospective and forward look," Potato research, 39 (1996), 395-401;
139. Lang (ref. 8), 159-170.
140. William W. Fry, et al., "Historical and recent migrations of Phytophthora infestans: Chronology, pathways, and implications," Plant disease, 77:7 (1993), 653-661;
141. William E. Fry and Stephen B. Goodwin, "Resurgence of the Irish potato famine fungus," Bioscience, 47:6 (June 1997), 363-371;
142. William E. Fry and Christine D. Smart, "The return of Phytophthora infestans, a potato pathogen that just won't quit," Potato research, 42 (1999), 279-282.