FOR the first time, scientists have been able to extract fungal DNA from
dried potato leaves left over from the infamous famine in 19th-century Ireland.
The genetic material could one day help farmers control potato blight.
Over a million people died in Ireland when a fungus-like pathogen called
Phytophthora infestans devastated the potato crop. Because modern farmers
also grapple with the disease, Jean Beagle Ristaino of North Carolina State
University in Raleigh and her colleagues developed a DNA fingerprinting test to
spot the fungus. And she thought she might try her test on specimens from the
Irish potato famine stored…
