Bioscience Evidence 2025, Vol.15, No.6, 303-312 http://bioscipublisher.com/index.php/be 303 CaseStudy Open Access Field Trials of Genetically Modified Potatoes Resistant to Late Blight Xuming Lv, Yeping Han Institute of Life Science, Jiyang College of Zhejiang A&F University, Zhuji, 311800, Zhejiang, China Corresponding email: yeping.han@jicat.org Bioscience Evidence, 2025, Vol.15, No.6 doi: 10.5376/be.2025.15.0030 Received: 20 Oct., 2025 Accepted: 28 Nov., 2025 Published: 21 Dec., 2025 Copyright © 2025 Lv and Han, This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Preferred citation for this article: Lv X.M., and Han Y.P., 2025, Field trials of genetically modified potatoes resistant to late blight, Bioscience Evidence, 15(6): 303-312 (doi: 10.5376/be.2025.15.0030) Abstract Late blight of potato is caused by pathogenic oocytes Phytophthora infestans. Long-term reliance on fungicides for control not only incurs high costs but also brings environmental and health risks. To achieve long-lasting and stable resistance, this study analyzed the disease resistance performance of transgenic potatoes introduced with wild Solanaceous plant resistance genes (Rpi genes) under field conditions in different regions and over multiple years. Although materials carrying a single Rpi gene can delay the onset of the disease to a certain extent, their resistance is easily broken through by pathogenic bacteria. By achieving the superposition of multiple Rpi genes with different sources and complementary recognition effectors through genetic engineering, stable, broad-spectrum, and even complete resistance to late blight can be demonstrated under natural infection conditions, and no significant resistance attenuation has been observed in multi-season trials. The study also combined the molecular detection and field resistance performance of the Rpi gene in Chinese potato germplasm resources to conduct a risk assessment of transgenic disease-resistant potatoes from aspects such as pathogen evolution, ecological security and gene flow. The transgenic and cis-gene breeding strategies with multi-gene superposition provide an important technical path for the sustainable prevention and control of late blight in potatoes. Keywords Potato (Solanum tuberosumL.); Late blight; Transgenic resistance; Rpi gene superposition; Field experiment 1 Introduction The potato (Solanum tuberosumL.) is one of the most important food crops in the world and ranks third in global staple food crop consumption, only after rice and wheat. The sustainability and yield of potato production have long been seriously threatened by late blight. Late blight, caused by the oomycotic pathogen Phytophthora infestans, is a highly destructive disease that causes severe economic losses. It is estimated that the global annual cost due to reduced production and control measures exceeds €6 billion (Majeed et al., 2022). In regions such as sub-Saharan Africa, late blight causes 15%~30% yield loss each year and has a particularly severe impact on small-scale farmers. This disease can reproduce asexually and sexually and spread rapidly under suitable temperature and humidity conditions (Kieu et al., 2021). Although frequent spraying of fungicides can reduce losses, it also significantly increases production costs and brings environmental and health risks. Although fungicides are effective in the short term, their long-term and excessive use will increase costs, cause environmental pollution, and promote the development of resistance in P. infestans. In some areas, fungicides used on potatoes account for 50% of the total pesticide usage. Due to the increasingly strict restrictions on pesticide use by regulations and consumers, there is an urgent need to find alternative methods (Resjö et al., 2025). Conventional breeding requires the introduction of resistance genes from wild related species into cultivated varieties. However, potatoes have genetic complexities such as tetraploid and high heterozygosity (Berindean et al., 2024). To obtain persistent late blight resistance, researchers discovered and analyzed a large number of Rpi genes in many wild Solanum species, such as S. demissum, S. bulbocastanumand S. venturii (Rogozina et al., 2023). These genes encode NLR proteins, which can recognize the effector proteins of pathogens and activate plant immune responses (Wang et al., 2025; Zhao et al., 2025). Among them, representative Rpi genes include RPI-BLB1, RPI-BLB2, RPI-BLB3, RPI-Vnt1.1 and RB. Different genes can develop resistance to different strains of P. infestans. However, due to the rapid evolution of pathogenic bacteria, they may evade immune recognition
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