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Potato wart disease is caused by the fungus Synchytrium endobioticum. A workshop on this disease was held in June 2019 at the Dutch National Plant Protection Organization (NPPO-NL) in Wageningen the Netherlands. Over 60 participants from 20 countries and 36 organizations came together to share their knowledge via posters and presentations, to strengthen professional networks, and to identify shared needs and future directions for S. endobioticum research.
The three major topics of the workshop were disease occurrence and management, understanding the pathogen, and host breeding and resistance. Many aspects around the disease were discussed and summarized in a shared statement. Future directions identified were: 1. research is moving towards the development of a standardized molecular viability test and a molecular pathotyping test; 2. coordination is needed to come up with better standardization of the pathotyping bioassays and the EPPO differential set needs to be more available for testers; and 3. stacking of resistance genes is strongly recommended but resistance breeding alone is not enough and should be combined with other management strategies to contain potato wart disease. Furthermore, the attendees remarked that organizing a workshop every 2 or 3 years would be of great benefit to the potato wart disease community.