JHI Researchers Discuss What's Next for Potato

After decoding the potato genome, James Hutton Institute (JHI) researchers discussed how to speed up the process of developing new varieties of the crop in the Britain's biggest annual event for potato industry called Potatoes in Practice. Glenn Bryan, one of the JHI scientists involved in the potato genome work, said, "Mapping the potato genome means we can now start to identify genes that are responsible for certain traits, for example disease resistance or drought tolerance. We can then use that information to help introduce desirable traits into new varieties of potato."

On the other hand, Finlay Dale, a potato breeder at JHI, explained the implications of the potato genome results to the growers. "The availability of the genome will help bring new and better varieties to the market as well as considerably speeding up the breeding process. Improvements to breeding varieties will be evident through the more rapid and more reliable identification of the important genes and also the more efficient identification of superior parental lines than previously possible," said Dale.

The event was also attended by growers, advisors, and industry representatives.

Read the media release at http://www.hutton.ac.uk/news/potato-growers-get-insight-how-genome-will-help-them.