Skip to main content
ARS Home » Northeast Area » Ithaca, New York » Robert W. Holley Center for Agriculture & Health » Emerging Pests and Pathogens Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #429119
Research Project: Advancing Knowledge of the Biology and Etiology of Bacterial Plant Pathogens Towards Management Strategies

Location: Emerging Pests and Pathogens Research

Title: A grower supported Mail-Away PVY project reveals the potential for detecting potato pathogens directly from tubers

Author
item MATTUPALLI, CHAKRADHAR - Washington State University
item INGRAM, JASON - Former ARS Employee
item FULLADOLSA, ANA CRISTINA - University Of Maryland
item Filiatrault, Melanie
item CHARKOWSKI, AMY - Colorado State University

Submitted to: Spudman
Publication Type: Trade Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/1/2026
Publication Date: 1/1/2026
Citation: Mattupalli, C., Ingram, J., Fulladolsa, A., Filiatrault, M.J., Charkowski, A.O. 2026. A grower supported Mail-Away PVY project reveals the potential for detecting potato pathogens directly from tubers. Spudman. vol. 64 no. 1.https://spudman.com/magazine/january-2026/

Interpretive Summary: Seed potato certification programs regulate the availability of seed, ensuring threshold levels for different pathogens are met by performing inspections of potato fields in the summer followed by winter grow-outs. During a winter grow-out, several thousands of pounds of potato tubers are exposed to chemicals for breaking tuber dormancy, shipped to warmer locations, planted and grown in the field, then leaves are sampled for serological tests. Finally certification results are given to seed potato growers. The process of winter grow-out testing is time consuming, taking at least four months to determine whether tubers can be sold as certified seed in the following season. Taking cues from a growing interest in the potato industry for tests that provide seed health data with a quicker turnaround time, we developed a direct tuber testing workflow for high-throughput molecular testing of pathogens. Our data show that after receiving samples in the lab, it takes approximately two weeks for growers to receive results from the testing laboratory. Beyond seed certification, we are hopeful that our FTA card-based direct tuber testing workflow can be used both as a diagnostic and quality assurance tool by agronomists to make commercial crop management decisions.

Technical Abstract: Seed is the foundation for raising healthy potato crop and delivering high quality potato products to the end user. Seed potato certification programs regulate the availability of seed, ensuring threshold levels for different pathogens are met by performing inspections of potato fields in the summer followed by winter grow-outs. A winter grow-out requires exposing several thousands of pounds of potato tubers to chemicals for breaking tuber dormancy, shipping these tubers in winter to warmer locations such as Hawaii, planting and growing them in the field, sampling leaves for serological tests, and finally delivering certification results to seed potato growers. This entire process of winter grow-out testing is time consuming, taking at least four months to determine whether tubers can be sold as certified seed in the following season. Taking cues from the National Potato Council’s Vision 2026 goals (https://spudman.com/article/rethinking-seed-potato-certification-moving-toward-a-grower-focused-system/) and a growing interest in the potato industry for tests that provide seed health data with a quicker turnaround time (https://spudman.com/article/covid-19-tech-provides-lessons-for-seed-potato-certification-improvements/), we developed a direct tuber testing workflow for high-throughput molecular testing of pathogens.