Spray-induced gene silencing as a potential tool to control potato late blight disease

Phytophthora infestans causes late blight disease on potato and tomato and is currently controlled by resistant cultivars or intensive fungicide spraying. Here, we investigated an alternative means for late blight control by spraying potato leaves with double-stranded RNAs (dsRNA) that target P. infestans genes that are essential for infection. Through confocal microscopy, we show that the sporangia of P. infestans expressing Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) can take up in vitro synthesized dsRNAs homologous to GFP directly from their surroundings, including leaves, which leads to the reduced relative expression of GFP. We further demonstrate the potential of spray induced gene silencing (SIGS) in controlling potato late blight disease by targeting developmentally important genes in P.infestans such as guanine-nucleotide binding (G) protein β-subunit (PiGPB1), haustorial membrane protein (PiHmp1), cutinase (PiCut3), and endo-1,3(4)-β-glucanase (PiEndo3). Our results demonstrate that SIGS can be potentially used to mitigate potato late blight; however, the degree of disease control is dependent on the selection of the target genes.