Scientists at the Scottish Crop research Institute (SCRI) have helped unlock the mystery behind potato blight - a disease that costs the global industry an estimated £4billion of losses every year.
The same disease devastated crops in Ireland 150 years ago - starving more than one million people to death.
Workers at the Scottish crop research institute in Invergowrie near Dundee believe they could help farmers grow new strains resistant to the infection.
Dr Steve Whisson said: "In sequencing the genome of Phytophthora infestans that causes late blight, that's an achievement in itself.
“But it's really just a new dawn, a turning point that's going to give us an opportunity to develop resistant cultivars, that are more resistant to late blight and to develop more environmental friendly control chemicals to spray on the crops."
