Biotech Updates

Project to Improve Drought Tolerance of Potatoes

June 10, 2011

A new research project to improve the drought tolerance of high-starch potato was recently established by partners Max Planck Institute for Molecular Plant Physiology in Golm, Julius Kuehn Institute, Institute of Resistance Research and Stress Tolerance in Great Lüsewitz, Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich, the Chamber of Agriculture of Lower Saxony with its experimental station Dethlingen, and nine GFP-member companies.

The impending effects of climate change on potato growing which include altered rainfall distribution and pronounced dry periods in the spring have become an important concern to potato growers in Europe. The project will then focus on the development of molecular markers specific to drought tolerance that will be used to improve drought tolerance of high-starch potato.

The article can be seen in German at http://www.gruenevernunft.de/node/1129