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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Madison, Wisconsin » Vegetable Crops Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #225506
Title: Potato Science for the Poor, International Potato Center

Author
item Spooner, David
item AMES, MERCEDES - UW MADISON
item GHISLAIN, M - INTL POTATO CNTR LIMA

Submitted to: Meeting Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/15/2008
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: The cultivated potato of world commerce, Solanum tuberosum, is one of the primary crops worldwide, forming a basic food and source of primary income for many societies. Wild and cultivated potatoes form the germplasm base for international breeding efforts to improve potato in the face of variety of disease, environmental, and agronomic constraints. A series of national and international genebanks collect, characterize and distribute germplasm to stimulate and aid potato improvement. Knowledge of potato taxonomy and evolution guides collecting efforts, genebank operations, and breeding in a variety of ways. This paper summarizes current knowledge of the classification, origin, and diffusion of cultivated potato that has provided new insights from a variety of collaborative morphological and molecular studies worldwide. The International Potato Center has been a key player in this effort through the use of its physical facilities (such as the Huancayo Peru Research Station suitable for replicated field trials of morphological data) and laboratories and intellectual capacity, with the development and use of a variety of molecular markers (especially microsatellites), that have radically changed our knowledge of the potato.