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FLHGSRAC
FLHGSRAC

Development of new methods to screen for resistance to blackheart, greening, glycoalkaloid spikes, and tuber skin color stability

Tuesday, July 29, 2025
2:15 PM - 4:00 PM CDT
A bottleneck for potato breeding programs is that evaluating breeding lines for desired traits is time consuming, and some traits are not even evaluated because no screen is available. We developed simple new screening methods based on heat or light treatments that allow the measurement of tuber periderm color stability, blackheart resistance, greening resistance and whether a genotype is prone to spikes in glycoalkaloids. Results were measured using machine vision. These new methods were used to identify lines resistant to blackheart and rank the resistance 71 breeding lines from 2024 trials. Light treatments were used on specialty potato lines to screen for lines that resist darkening when exposed to light, or lines that green more slowly in the light. A major concern about glycoalkaloids is the potential that they may spike to high levels in an unpredictable manner when a new line is grown on a larger commercial scale. We developed a method that estimates the potential of a line to have large spikes in glycoalkaloids by treating tubers with light and then measuring changes in glycoalkaloids by LCMS. Collectively, these methods will help in the development of superior new potato cultivars that have lower amounts of defects that are a major cause of consumer complaints.