By Dan Weeks
The Irish potato famine of the 1840s was caused by a plant-pathogen strain that was unknown until now, scientists said after examining dried leaves that were as much as 170 years old.
A strain of Phytophthora infestans called HERB-1 that probably emerged early in the 19th century caused the disaster, the Tuebingen, Germany-based Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology said today in a statement on its website. Until now, the US-1 strain was “long thought” to have been responsible, it showed.
