Effector-screening and Genome Wide Association Studies to enable breeding for resistance to Phytophthora capsici
Phytophthora capsici is a worldwide prevalent pathogen of pepper and is the most destructive and economically important disease of pepper. High relative humidity and extreme weather events (e.g. heavy rain fall and flooding) can initiate wide spread infections. Since commercial pepper cultivars are very susceptible or just partially resistant to P. capsici, the disease is controlled by application of chemicals. Within this project we aim to identify resistant pepper accessions, effectors from P. capsici and molecular markers that will enable the participating companies to breed for pepper cultivars more resistant to P. capsici and more robust to climate change.