Study Reveals Narrow Genetic Basis of European Potato

Researchers from the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU) and the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, in collaboration with researchers from Wageningen University and Research conducted a study on the genetic basis of the European potato.

The researchers selected 10 heritage potato varieties, some of which were already being cultivated in the 18th century. According to Ronald Hutten, the curator of the Potato Pedigree Database, these varieties represent the ‘Founding Fathers' of modern potatoes and date from the first phase of European breeding programs.

A potato has four sets of chromosomes, and these 10 varieties could contain a maximum of 40 different sources or unique haplotypes. However, the researchers found that large regions of many chromosomes are identical and no more than nine different haplotypes. That covers 85 percent of the genetic variants found in modern European potatoes. Wageningen potato geneticists Ronald Hutten and Herman van Eck say they cannot explain this based on lineage data alone. Written sources on lineage only go back as far as 1820. So, the European potato has a very narrow genetic base, derived from a small number of plants originally introduced into Europe.

For more details, read the article in WUR News.