Unlikely heroes on the long and winding road to potato inbreeding

Luca Comai

doi:10.1007/s42994-023-00109-5

Unlikely heroes on the long and winding road to potato inbreeding

aBIOTECH. 2023 Jul 18;4(3):267-271. doi: 10.1007/s42994-023-00109-5. eCollection 2023 Sep.

Author

Luca Comai¹

Affiliation

¹ Department of Plant Biology and Genome Center, University of California Davis, Davis, CA 95616 USA.

Abstract

Conversion of potato from a tetraploid, heterozygous, vegetatively propagated crop to a diploid F1 hybrid, propagated via botanical seed, would constitute a considerable advance for global agriculture, but faces multiple challenges. One such challenge is the difficulty in inbreeding potato, which involves purging deleterious alleles from its genome. This commentary discusses possible reasons for this difficulty and highlights a recent sequence-based effort to classify SNP variation, in potato germplasm, according to its deleterious potential. Tools and strategies connected to this database may facilitate development of F1 hybrids.

Keywords: Clonal propagation; Deleterious alleles; Genetic load; Hybrid seed; Inbreeding.

Publication types

Editorial