Potato breeding now and into the genomics era

The potato is one of the top staple foods in the world and is an important crop regarding food security. The potato's ease of cultivation and high energy content make it a valuable crop for millions of farmers. Climate changes mean that potato production is increasingly vulnerable to a wide range of pathogens (including Phytophthora infestans (late blight), nematodes, bacteria, viruses and insects and environmental stresses (drought, heat, cold and salinity). The publication of the genome sequence is a major step in understanding potato biology and is accelerating the breeding of new cultivars. The use of genetics-based selection methods is promising and the technology to exploit the genome sequence immediately is already being applied in the UK and elsewhere. An understanding of the genetic blueprint for potato gives us the option of introducing desirable characteristics into existing cultivars more efficiently, such as enhanced pest and disease resistance and improved tuber quality characteristics. Marker-assisted selection (MAS) can be effectively used to identify major genes and QTLs that exhibit significant effects. However, there are also a number of important and complex traits, such as yield and quality that are influenced by a large number of individual small effect genes dispersed across the genome making the application of MAS difficult. Progeny testing and using pedigree information in the analysis can provide effective identification of the inherent factors that underpin these complex traits. This paper discusses recent advances in potato breeding and how their application to simple and complex traits is improving the efficiency of potato breeding programs.