Cultivar Resistance to Common Scab Disease of Potato Is Dependent on the Pathogen Species

Abstract

Common scab of potato is a superficial tuber disease caused by Streptomyces species that produce the phytotoxin thaxtomin. Because common scab development is highly dependent on the effects of this single toxin, the current operating paradigm in common scab pathology is that a potato cultivar resistant to one strain of the common scab pathogen is resistant to all strains. However, cultivar resistance to common scab disease identified in one breeding program is often not durable when tested in other potato breeding programs across the United States. We infected 55 potato cultivar populations with three distinct species of the common scab pathogen and identified cultivars that were resistant or susceptible to all three species and cultivars that had widely varying resistance dependent on the pathogen species. Overall lower virulence was associated with the strain that produces the least thaxtomin. This result showcases several cultivars of potato that are expected to be resistant to the majority of common scab populations but also highlights that many potato cultivars are resistant to only specific species of the pathogen. These results demonstrate that extension specialists and growers must consider their local population of the common scab pathogen when selecting which cultivars to plant for common scab resistance.