Scientists have discovered the genetic reason for the adaptability and virulence of the potato blight organism, which caused the Irish famine of the 1840s and is responsible for an estimated £4bn ($6.6bn) a year of crop losses worldwide.

A large international research team announced the decoding of the genome of the pathogen, Phytophthora infestans, on Wednesday at the British Science Festival in Guildford, Surrey. The findings are published in the journal Nature.