First Skin-Transplant Potato Gets Plant Breeder's Rights in The Netherlands

The Board for Plant Varieties in the Netherlands has granted plant breeders' rights to the first skin-transplant potato variety. This groundbreaking potato variety was developed using KeyGene's proprietary 2S1® technique for creating graft hybrids.

KeyGene's 2S1® technique allows for the creation of superior and stable new varieties by combining desirable skin traits, such as drought tolerance and insect repellence from one variety, with high-yield traits from another. The new 2S1® potato variety combines the skin of Pimpernel with the inner cell layers of Bintje. With this combination, the variety retains most of the essential properties of Bintje and is supplemented with a suite of skin-related traits from Pimpernel, which are manifested on all above-ground plant parts plus the tubers. The Pimpernel skin and Bintje inner cells combination is stable. After several years of seed potato production, the seed potatoes, the plants growing from the seed potatoes, and the potatoes produced by these plants faithfully maintain their unique combination of cell layers.

The granting of Plant Breeders' Rights by the Board for Plant Varieties in the Netherlands proves that these skin-transplant varieties can be commercialized as new varieties. Jeroen Stuurman, distinguished scientist at KeyGene and lead developer of the 2S1® said that they have made an old breeding dream finally come true by developing a skin-grafted potato variety. While this type of grafting is a rare natural phenomenon, the new 2S1 technology turns it into a rational technique to harness natural genetic variation for breeding purposes in an entirely new way.

For more details, read the news release in KeyGene News.