Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
12
Virus Disease Problems Facing
Potato Industries Worldwide: Viruses
Found, Climate Change Implications,
Rationalizing Virus Strain Nomenclature,
and Addressing the
Potato Virus Y
Issue
Roger A.C. Jones
1,2
*
1
School of Plant Biology and Institute for Agriculture, University
of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia;
2
Department
of Agriculture and Food, South Perth, Western Australia
Potato is the fourth most important food crop
globally after maize, wheat, and rice, and the
most important root or tuber crop. It is a staple
crop in many parts of the world with temperate
climates, and at high altitude in tropical regions.
It is also grown for food on a large scale in winter
plantings in Mediterranean-type environments
and subtropical regions. It plays a major role in
feeding people in food-insecure regions of the
world. As discussed in Chapter
2,
nine different
potato species are cultivated, with
Solanum tu-
berosum
the most important of these.
S. tubero-
sum
sub. sp.
andigena
is the dominant type of
potato grown at the center of domestication of
the crop in the Andean region of South America,
but elsewhere only
S. tuberosum
sub. sp.
tuberosum
is cultivated. Although potato virus diseases and
how to control them have been the subject of
much research since the early days of plant vir-
ology at the beginning of the 20th century, they
still limit its productivity in many countries (e.g.
Jones, 1981a; de Bokx and van der Want, 1987;
Loebenstein
et al
., 2001; Stevenson
et al
., 2001;
Loebenstein and Thottappilly, 2003).
Several textbooks, compendia, or image
set texts summarized the information available
about potato viruses at the time they were
written (e.g. de Bokx and van der Want, 1987;
Loebenstein
et al
., 2001; Stevenson
et al
.,
2001; Jones
et al
., 2009). Also, many books,
general articles, or reviews have been pub-
lished on different aspects of potato virus re-
search. Some of these focused on the diversity
of potato viruses in the center of crop domesti-
cation (Fribourg, 1980; Jones, 1981a; Salazar,
2006), specific potato viruses (e.g. Jones,
1988; Singh
et al
., 2008; Gray
et al
., 2010),
natural resistance to potato viruses (e.g. Cock-
erham, 1970; Valkonen, 1994; Valkonen
et al
.,
1996; Gebhart and Valkonen, 2001; Solo-
mon-Blackburn and Barker, 2001a,b), or eco-
nomic losses and biotechnological potential
(Valkonen, 2007). This chapter emphasizes re-
cent information or aspects previously not ad-
dressed fully. It starts by discussing briefly the
viruses known to infect the crop, their relative
importance, and the likelihood that more than
the
50
or so currently known viruses will
