Taro leaf blight caused by Phytophthora colocasiae is a major constraint to taro cultivation. To manage taro leaf blight and design breeding programme, it is crucial to recognize the genetic diversity of taro and P. colocasiae. We studied genetic structure of taro and P. colocasiae in India. Biochemical alterations in taro plants infected by the P. colocasiae were studied and changes in peroxidase, -1,3-glucanase, L-phenylalanine ammonia-lyase, total phenol and total sugar were evaluated. We employed suppressive subtractive hybridization, high through put DNA sequencing and bioinformatics to identify the defense related genes in taro induced by P. colocasiae infection. Two putative resistance genes and a transcription factor were identified among the upregulated sequences. Our study illustrated that identified genes will be useful to engineer disease protection in taro."

Leaf blight of taro, caused by Phytophthora colocasiae Raciborski, is the most destructive disease of Colocasia esculenta.The disease has severely constrained taro production. Based on disease severity its highly solicited to develop disease prevention method. The use of disease-free planting material is important in halting the spread of P. colocasiae from nurseries to fields and also highly relevant to limiting the spread of it across the globe.In view of that we have developed Nested PCR-Primers for rapid and sensitive detection of Phytophthora colocasiae in infected planting material and infested soil. We have further aimed at investigating the role of BAP(synthetic cytokinin), pathogen derived elicitor protein in the interaction of P. colocasiae and its host plant taro, to explore its potential in controlling taro leaf blight disease.Our investigation shows that transgenic taro plants expressing eiher an elicitor protein or increased cytokinin level could be useful to engineer broad disease protection in taro plant against Phytophthora leaf blight.