Methods for more productive potato farming have been discovered as a result of a recent investigation into the genetics of one of the most significant crops in the world.

An international team of researchers led by Dr. Yaoyao Wu of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and including Dr. Sandra Knapp OBE FRS of the Natural History Museum was able to predict the presence of over 350,000 harmful gene variants that are preventing efficient potato breeding by studying the nightshade family, of which the potato is a member.

Researchers will be better able to develop new types of potatoes that are immune to actual and projected environmental issues resulting from the global emergency, the team believes, if they completely grasp the genetics of the plant.

“This research is the first step of a long process. By fully understanding potato genetics plant breeders will be better able to breed new varieties of potato that grow more vigorously or are perhaps more resistant to disease and other environmental challenges. I’ve loved being part of this study, it just shows how understanding biodiversity through the study of taxonomy and evolution has far-reaching implications for many things that can’t be anticipated at the outset,” Knapp mentioned.

Sandy, an expert in the nightshade family, explains added that potato breeding is very challenging because it is a clonally reproduced crop, so new potatoes are grown from pieces of old ones.

“This means they have accumulated lots of deleterious mutations, which impact their health and growth and cannot easily be gotten rid of using traditional methods,” Sandy declared.

Potatoes are tetraploid, which means they contain four sets of chromosomes, two more than the majority of plants and animals. This complicates matters further. Additionally, because potatoes are self-incompatible and cannot self-pollinate, which is how new varieties are typically created, conventional breeding techniques are difficult to apply to them.

Understanding the genetic makeup of the potato is the first step in generating better potatoes. To identify and anticipate deleterious, or damaging, mutations in critical regions for plant survival, the scientists employed a method known as genomic evolutionary rate profiling (GERP), which searches for evolutionary-constrained areas in a plant’s genome.

“We helped the team to understand the relationships between the members of the nightshade family, grounding their research in genetic and evolutionary reality. Understanding the family tree of these plants is fundamental to this project, because without it, all of the genetic predictions come undone,” according to Sandy.

367,499 harmful gene variations were found in the potato genome overall thanks to the profiling. To start breeding new potato varieties, inbred lines could be made using the information provided.

The team was taken aback to learn that less robust, slower-growing parents made the best candidates for producing potatoes with greater resilience. For these inbred strains, plant breeders typically choose the strongest plants as parents.

“It’s counterintuitive to use less vigorous potatoes to create better parental lines for future potato breeding, but it’s a really interesting finding. These new prediction methods could have the potential to accelerate potato breeding. Taxonomy has become increasingly important for many crops as researchers look to find out more about their wild relatives. Studying wild relatives can help to boost the genetic diversity of crops and find useful genes that might help them overcome today’s serious environmental challenges such as climate change,” Sandy summed up.