Potato Team Lead by David Douches Awarded New Patent
David Douchess and his group of potato breeders and extension specialists at the MSU Potato Breeding and Genetics Program actively work to find solutions to the potato agronomy issues that Michigan growers and potato farmers worldwide confront.
“We breed for fast, plentiful growth, disease resistance, and good storage, as well as cooking texture and flavor profile. But diploid potatoes are usually self-incompatible, making it difficult to breed diploid cultivars,” director David Douchess said.
Dave and his potato team were long irritated by this breeding bottleneck. However, a recent development in potato genetics has altered all that and opened up new avenues for study. The news at an R1 university is fantastic.
Dave and his group were recently granted US Patent # 12,065,657 “OVERCOMING SELF-INCOMPATIBILITY IN DIPLOID PLANTS FOR BREEDING AND PRODUCTION OF HYBRIDS” in which Dave and his team provide a method for genetic modification of plants to reduce or eliminate self-incompatibility.
“It was a great team effort. It’s a big advance for plant breeding because it gives potatoes the ability to self-pollinate, like tomatoes can, which will shorten the generation of new cultivars. This shows the importance of biotechnology in supporting new breeding strategies in potatoes and other crops,” Felix Enciso, who put a lot of time and effort into the project during his PhD program at MSU, added.
“This patent is one chapter in a very long story of genetics, biotechnology, and collaboration in potato breeding. This patent is a key milestone in our diploid potato breeding approach that will ensure improved varieties for the next generation,” David Douches concluded.
