Research & Development

Screening of Potato Varieties for the Detection of Early – Maturity Traits and QTL analysis in Tetraploid Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.)

Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is the fourth most consumed crop worldwide and is an important industrial raw material. Potato cultivars are classified as early-, mid- or late-maturing, based on their maturity period. Early-maturing varieties complete their life cycle in 60 -70 days and 85-95 days in case of mid- and late-maturing varieties, respectively. Earliness gives the opportunity to catch the market value and grab the high rates of potatoes which benefitted the farmers. Despite the large number of cultivars currently available, there is still a need to develop early-maturing cultivars.

Varieties with different maturity periods can meet production and consumption demand in different regions and seasons. The breeding of different maturity varieties is highly significant in the development of the potato industry. In a study, they claimed that early maturity trait is pointed out at the 3.7~ 4.2Mb loci on the short arm of chromosome 5 where E3 ubiquitin ligase gene PUB14 could be related to maturity and regulation of tuber formation (Li et al. 2018). The map of QTL on the short arm of chromosome 5 contributed to 33.55% of early maturity phenotype which was located at 84cM, flanked by the SSR-85-1 and SCAR5-8 markers. These two selective primers will amplify a band related to the early maturity gene which could be used to screen all ACI potato germplasm to identify potential early maturing lines.

A field trial of the varieties will be also carried out to evaluate the degree of the new super potato variety.

Despite the challenges, there is ample scope for potato breeders to create other success stories. So, more early-maturing potato varieties with resistance to biotic and abiotic stress are expected to be developed.

Objective
• To develop the short–duration potato variety.

Short-Duration potatoes work plan with the time frame as follow:

Information of gene, primers, chromosomes in short duration of potatoes

Prepared by:

Rona Mahmud
ASRBC, ACI Seed, ACI Limited.

References
Li, Xingcui, et al. "Mapping and QTL Analysis of Early-Maturity Traits in Tetraploid Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.)." International journal of molecular sciences 19.10 (2018): 3065.

Sliwka, J.; Jakuczun, H.; Lebecka, R.; Marczewski, W.; Gebhardt, C.; Zimnoch-Guzowska, E. Tagging QTLs for late blight resistance and plant maturity from diploid wild relatives in a cultivated potato (Solanm tuberosum L.) background. Theor. Appl. Genet. 2007, 115, 101–112.