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Breeding potatoes to improve quality and meet market requirements

This material addresses aspects of the following syllabus outcomes:

H1.1 explains the influence of the physical, biological, social, historical and economic factors on sustainable agricultural production
H2.1 describes the inputs, processes and interactions of plant production systems.

The work presented in the following section contributes towards understanding the following syllabus content areas:

Students learn about:

Managing plant production

Extract from Stage 6 Agriculture Syllabus NSW Board of Studies Amended 2009

Introduction

The annual production of potatoes in Australia is approximately 1.3 million tonnes with a farm gate value of $480 million. There are three different end uses or markets for potatoes: fresh, french fries and crisps.

Each of these end uses or markets requires varieties with different characteristics. Potato breeders try to produce new varieties that:

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Market requirements

Market Requirements
Fresh Yield, Tuber size (120 – 300 g preferred), bright skinned with no blemishes, do not disintegrate when cooking, have acceptable taste and texture, not susceptible to pests and disease.
French Fries Yield, Tubers 280 – 450 g, long and regularly shaped, specific gravity above 1.080g/cm3, light coloured when fried, do not disintegrate when cooking, have acceptable taste and texture, not susceptible to pests and disease.
Crisps Yield, Tubers 45 – 90 mm diameter, round or slightly flattened, specific gravity 1.085 to 1.095 g/cm3, crisp colour must be uniform and light, do not disintegrate when cooking, have acceptable taste and texture, not susceptible to pests and disease.

Breeding new varieties

It is important to understand how reproduction in potatoes occurs. When grown as a crop they are grown vegetatively from tubers (asexual reproduction).

Potatoes also produce flowers and fruits that contain seeds (sexual reproduction). Plant breeders are very interested in this form of reproduction because it is the mechanism that allows them to combine the desirable characteristics of one variety with the desirable characteristics of a second variety and produce a new variety that combines these desirable characteristics.

Consider this hypothetical example. A new variety of crisp potato is needed that is resistant to Powdery Scab disease. An existing variety Not as thick as some, makes crisps that are light coloured, have great taste and texture and has a high yield, but is susceptible to Powdery Scab. Another variety, Smiths Wonder, makes crisps that are dark coloured and do not taste very good. This variety is high yielding and is not susceptible to Powdery Scab. The plant breeder crosses these two varieties by taking pollen from Not as thick as some and transfers it to the flowers of Smiths Wonder. When the Smiths Wonder plant matures the seeds are collected from the fruits. Each seed is a unique combination of genes from the two parents. These seeds are then planted and the characteristics of the tubers, produced by each resulting plant, are assessed. Each plant is a new variety having a unique genetic make up. The individual plants (new varieties) that have a combination of good yield, quality crisps and resistance to Powdery Scab are selected and further generations of them are grown using their tubers. Further testing of each new variety is done and one or two new varieties are released for commercial production.

Question

Use the information above to complete this table, summarising the breeding process.

Parent varieties    
Characteristics
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Male or female parent    
  100 seeds
F1 generation 100 plants each unique genetically
Vegetative propagation and testing Selection of plants combining:
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Field testing of five
Final variety released for

Answers

You can access additional information about plant breeding and the production of potatoes by using the following links:

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