POTATO VARIETY IMPROVEMENT USING PROTOPLAST FUSION

THE UNITED STATES POTATO CROP, VALUED AT $1.5 BILLION, REPRESENTS 8 PERCENT OF A 254 MILLION METRIC TON WORLD CROP. POTATO CULTIVAR DEVELOPMENT BY TRADITIONAL METHODS HAS BEEN A SLOW PROCESS, FREQUENTLY REQUIRING MORE THAN 10 YEARS AND EVALUATION OF AS MANY AS A MILLION SEEDLINGS. IN THIS PROPOSAL, THE RESEARCHERS DESCRIBE EXPERIMENTS DESIGNEDTO RAPIDLY TRANSFER COMMERCIALLY IMPORTANT TRAITS INTO SOLANUM TUBEROSUM CV. RUSSET BURBANK USING PROTOPLAST FUSION. THE DONOR LINE IN THEIR FUSION EXPERIMENT CONTAINS SUPERIOR RESISTANCE TO NET NECROSIS, GOLDEN NEMATODE, VERTICILLIUM WILT, PVX, AND BRUISING, AS WELL AS CONTAINING HIGHER SOLIDS AND DISPLAYING EARLIER TUBER SET. IN PHASE I, THEY INTEND TO DEFINE CONDITIONS TO FUSE PROTOPLASTS OF THIS LINE WITH RUSSET BURBANK AND TO REGENERATE FUSION DERIVATIVES.