Advances in Conservation and Use of Potato Genetic Resources

Download or read book Advances in Conservation and Use of Potato Genetic Resources written by Iris Edith Peralta and published by Frontiers Media SA. This book was released on 2024-11-22 with total page 187 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The potato is the world’s most important non-cereal food, with a global production of 370 million tonnes. The cultivated potato, Solanum tuberosum L. (AABB, 2n = 4x = 48, genome size 844 Mb), belongs to Solanum section Petota and was domesticated in the South American Andes about 8.000 to 10.000 years ago. The Petota section is characterized by a broad genetic diversity involving introgressions, interspecific hybridization events, auto‐ and allopolyploidy, and a high degree of morphological similarities. Overall, 7 cultivated and 228 wild species (Hawkes, 1990) or 4 cultivated and 107 wild species (Spooner et al., 2014) were described and are conserved through 82,000 accessions in 89 institutions. Depending on the genetic material, clonal plants are preserved in field genebanks and/or in vitro slow-growth storage and/or cryopreservation or as seeds in cold storage facilities. However, challenges for efficient identification of collection gaps, conservation, and usage of potato genetic resources in potato breeding programs, are the differences in taxonomic classification, the limited information, and advances in characterization, evaluation, sequencing, and conservation approaches. The aim of this research topic is to highlight the latest developments and strategies in the conservation and use of potato genetic resources. It addresses different scientific fields, i.e. plant physiology, genetics, functional genomics, phenomics, taxonomy, computer modeling, and database management.