In a groundbreaking development for plant breeding, Dutch biotech company KeyGene has been granted plant breeders’ rights for the world’s first skin-transplant potato. The new variety is a result of KeyGene’s proprietary 2S1 graft hybrid technology, which enables the stable combination of desirable traits from two different potato varieties.

This innovation merges the skin of the drought-tolerant, insect-repelling Pimpernel with the inner cell layers of the high-yielding Bintje, effectively fusing the advantages of both parent lines. The resulting variety retains Bintje’s agronomic strengths while gaining Pimpernel’s protective skin characteristics—not only on the tubers but also on above-ground plant parts.

“This is a breeding dream come true,” said Jeroen Stuurman, lead developer of the 2S1 technology. “While this type of grafting has been seen rarely in nature—such as in ancient grafted fruit trees—we’ve now made it into a repeatable, rational breeding method.”

According to Roeland van Ham, CEO of KeyGene, the technology has far-reaching implications for other vegetatively propagated crops like fruit trees and berries, potentially cutting development time for new varieties and offering new product concepts for seed-propagated crops as well.

The successful granting of plant breeders’ rights by the Netherlands Board for Plant Varieties validates the commercial viability of this unique breeding technique. KeyGene describes the new potato as a “proof-of-concept”, demonstrating how its 2S1 platform can deliver cost-effective, fast-track development of novel plant varieties with tailor-made trait combinations—an innovation with promising implications for sustainable agriculture.