ARS | Publication request: SCREENING FOR GIBBERELLIN DEFICIENCY MUTANTS IN SOLANUM TUBEROSUM SSP. ANDIGENA

Submitted to: American Journal of Potato Research
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: June 11, 1999
Publication Date: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Plant hormones regulate important functions that affect profitability of the crop. The major hormone gibberellin influences potato tuber and seed sprouting, tuber initiation, flowering, and other traits. A mutant deficient in gibberellin (previously discovered by the author in a single population) was studied further. When 120 populations in the US Potato Genebank were tested for presence of the mutant, 13 new sources of the mutant type were discovered. This work shows that the gibberellin mutant is relatively widespread. This allows for broadening the scope of basic research on the gene, and assures us that it is not so rare that we need worry about it being accidentally lost from the genebank.

Technical Abstract: Gibberellin (GA) is a major plant hormone that influences many economically important physiological processes in potato. A GA deficiency mutant derived from a single population of Solanum tuberosum ssp. andigena (adg) has been previously described. The present work reports the results of screening for the dwarfing mutant in a representative sample of 120 adg populations in the US Potato Genebank. Up to 500 seedlings of each adg population were evaluated. Dwarfs were detected in 14 populations from a minimum of 0.2 percent to a maximum of 27.7 percent, suggesting that the allele is not particularly rare or at risk of loss from the genebank.