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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Madison, Wisconsin » Vegetable Crops Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #366088
Research Project: Maximizing the Impact of Potato Genebank Resources: Development and Evaluation of a Wild Species Genotype Diversity Panel

Location: Vegetable Crops Research

Title: Potato germplasm enhancement in the genomics era

Author
item Bethke, Paul
item Halterman, Dennis
item Jansky, Shelley

Submitted to: Agronomy
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/17/2019
Publication Date: 9/23/2019
Citation: Bethke, P.C., Halterman, D.A., Jansky, S.H. 2019. Potato germplasm enhancement in the genomics era. Agronomy. 9(10):575. https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy9100575.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy9100575

Interpretive Summary: Germplasm enhancement is the incorporation of traits from wild crop relatives into cultivated material. It seeks to restore genetic diversity that has been lost over time as a result of domestication, migration, disease, and other sources of bottlenecks. When successful, it adds novel alleles that improve the breeding merits of individuals carrying them. This paper provides a historical perspective for potato germplasm enhancement and prospects for the use of new technologies in the future.

Technical Abstract: The goal of germplasm enhancement is to introgress traits from wild crop relatives into cultivated material and eventually cultivars. It seeks to restore genetic diversity that has been lost over time, adding novel alleles that improve parents in breeding programs. This paper discusses potato germplasm enhancement efforts in the past, focusing on effective examples such as disease resistance and processing quality. In addition, it outlines new strategies for enhancement efforts, shifting the focus from evaluating phenotypes to tracking and manipulating genes. In the genomics era, germplasm enhancement will increasingly be focused on identifying and introgressing alleles rather than traits. Alleles will come from a broad pool of genetic resources that includes wild species relatives of potato, landraces, cultivated potato itself, and distantly related species. Genomics tools will greatly increase the efficiency of introgressing multigenic traits, and will make it possible to identify rare alleles and utilize recessive alleles.