The potato pathogen has even been rumoured to be involved with certain cases of dwarfism...
Posted on 05/21/2013 12:25:13 PM PDT by neverdem
An international team of scientists reveals that a unique strain of potato blight they call HERB-1 triggered the Irish potato famine of the mid-nineteenth century.
It is the first time scientists have decoded the genome of a plant pathogen and its plant host from dried herbarium samples. This opens up a new area of research to understand how pathogens evolve and how human activity impacts the spread of plant disease.
Phytophthora infestans changed the course of history. Even today, the Irish population has still not recovered to pre-famine levels. "We have finally discovered the identity of the exact strain that caused all this havoc," says Hernán Burbano from the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology.
For research to be published in eLife, a team of molecular biologists from Europe and the US reconstructed the spread of the potato blight pathogen from dried plants. Although these were 170 to 120 years old, they were found to have many intact pieces of DNA.
"Herbaria represent a rich and untapped source from which we can learn a tremendous amount about the historical distribution of plants and their pests -- and also about the history of the people who grew these plants," according to Kentaro Yoshida from The Sainsbury Laboratory in Norwich.
The researchers examined the historical spread of the fungus-like oomycete Phytophthora infestans, known as the Irish potato famine pathogen. A strain called US-1 was long thought to have been the cause of the fatal outbreak. The current study concludes that a strain new to science was responsible. While more closely related to the US-1 strain than to other modern strains, it is unique. "Both strains seem to have separated from each other only years before the first major outbreak in Europe," says Burbano.
The researchers compared the historic samples with modern strains...
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...
Ireland ping!
It was a myth in the sense Irish people died of starvation cause of no spuds.What about all the other tuber plants turnips,parsnips and carrots and let us forget the Irish had cows or pigs and sheep.
It disgusts me to this day that the Irish had to leave Eire cause our spuds got sick.
The brits rewrote history kinda like if Hitler had won WW2 the jews would have died from a famine.
Well our population has recovered they just did it in the US.
The potato pathogen has even been rumoured to be involved with certain cases of dwarfism...
The Welsh, Cornish, Scottish, Manx, Breton and Galician populations show a similar distribution ~ albeit without all that UK'ness.
Wasn't just the potato famine did that.
You do? stick me on that ping if it is a low volume ping.Like to hear whats going on back at the old sod.
“An international team of scientists reveals that a unique strain of potato blight they call HERB-1 triggered the Irish potato famine of the mid-nineteenth century.”
That’s a half truth that compromises the full truth of what caused the FAMINE.
What the scientists actually found was what caused the disease known as potatoe blight that destroyed so much of the potatoe crop in Ireland.
However, British imperial politics, not the potatoe blight set the course by which the growing of potatoes dominated Irish agriculture to such an extent that failure of that one crop meant famine for Ireland, where 1/3 of the population was entirely dependent on the potatoe for food and many more were dependent on potatoe farming for income, for Ireland and for export to Britain and her empire.
The famine story is also a story of how concentrated and abusive power in any form leads to a tragedy waiting to happen.
Had Ireland been charting it’s own course, Ireland would have experienced the potatoe blight as most of Europe did at the time, but like most of Europe most of Ireland would have not experienced the famine. Like other parts of Europe Irelands agriculture would have been more diverse.
Thanks!
I’m sure Monsanto can make great use of this! ... I wonder why only natural seeds are being stored in that Norwegian mountain vault?
I do, you may, and it a low-volume list ... at its most active, when I’m pregnant and not moving around much, a couple times a week. When I’m run ragged, like now, it’s more like a couple times a month.
Go raibh maith agat..
You’re da bom!
Any time.
outpostinmass2 ~” There were two types of Irish. Green and Orange.”
“The Orange owned most of the land.” The Orange were mostly Northern Eastern Irish arround Ulster , and favored British rule . They were primarily Protestant.
“The Green were mostly tenant farmers of five acres or less. Not enough land to raise livestock and only enough to grow potatoes. “ The Green were mostly Catholic , and inhabited more than 2/3 of Ireland , and favored the Free Republic of Ireland.
Due to persecution of Catholics, there was an defense organization established : AOH (Ancient Order of Hibernians)
Irish Whiskey (loosely translated as : Waters of Life)
The Orange (Protestants)drink : Bushmills
The Green (Catholics) drink : Jameson
I saw that but thought it bad communist propaganda. We’re supposed to conclude that the communists were the good guys.
No doubt that there was other food, not potatoes, that was available.
Ireland exported food during the famine. The food they exported didn’t belong to the people who were starving. The government didn’t think it necessary or proper to take A’s food to feed B. There was charity, it just was overwhelmed by the extent of the problem.
The Brits also imported indian corn (maize) into Ireland, and the price was subsidized. People didn’t know how to cook it, and with a failure of the potato crops, didn’t have any money to buy corn, no matter what the price.
I don’t think the brits rewrote it. I just don’t think that people at that time knew what the right answer was. They just had a choice of different wrong answers from which to select.
Yeah i agree with you .I have had this conversation with numerous people over the years and usually get the same reply “Wow i never thought about that”
It was actually Sinead O’Connor who got me thinking about it.
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/sineadoconnor/famine.html
I always got by over there singing “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”.
The third verse was always the teary one....
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