Potato genome may revolutionise breeding, aid food security

The research findings, published in Nature​, are said to begin to unravel the secrets of the world's most important non-grain food crop and may help to create crops with greater nutritional value and better resistance to pests and diseases.

Researchers said that the development also holds promise for speeding up the traditionally time-consuming process of developing new varieties improved yield – which currently takes between ten and 12 years.

“This is the first plant with a tuber to be sequenced,”​ she said. “It will still take researchers awhile to use the genome information to improve its agronomic traits, such as improved quality, yield, drought tolerance and disease resistance. But our most-recent research will accelerate efforts on improving potato varieties and help close the gap,”​ said Dr Robin Buell, a plant biologist at Michigan State University, USA, who was involved in the project.

“Piecing together the exact DNA sequence of the genome has been a technically demanding task, requiring the expertise of all our collaborators worldwide. We can see for the first time the secrets of the potato genome, and now begins the challenge of analysing them over the coming months and years,”​ added Dr David Martin, who led the bioinformatics team at the University of Dundee, UK.

Food security​

The potato is one of the top staple foods in the world, and is the most important non-grain crop for human consumption.

Consumption is ever expanding in developing countries, which now account for more than half of the global harvest.

With the global population set to reach 9 billion by 2050 there will be many more mouths to feed and the genome sequence will allow scientists and breeders to increase the efficiency of potato production to help meet this challenge, said the authors.

“If we're to feed the nine billion people projected to be living on the planet by 2050 then potato crops with improved water uptake and resistance to disease and drought will be an important development,”​ said Jim Paice, the UK Minister for Agriculture.

Promising​

Dr Glenn Bryan from The James Hutton Institute, who led the UK part of the team said: “This genome sequence is a major step forward in understanding potato biology. It will lead to accelerated breeding of new potato varieties through use of the genome data to identify genes and genetic markers for important traits”.​
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“Use of genetics-based selection methods is very promising and technology to exploit the genome sequence immediately is already being prepared in the UK and elsewhere.​
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“In addition, an understanding of the genetic blueprint for potato gives us the option of introducing - through breeding programmes - desirable characteristics into existing varieties, such as enhanced pest and disease resistance and improved tuber quality characteristics,” ​said Bryan

Research co-author Dr Gerard Bishop, from Imperial College London said that the wider crop research community “has been eagerly anticipating”​ the news.

“The potato genome will also help our understanding of closely related crops such as tomato, which will be of enormous benefit,”​ said Bishop.

“Potato is a member of the Solanaceae family, which also includes tomato, capsicum, and aubergine … Food it is becoming more and more popular, and is increasingly important in Africa and many parts of Asia, giving it a vital role in global food security,”​ he added.