b'TATER TALES Making a Canadian Potato Breeding Program WorkGroup of potato breeders teaming up to breed for late blight resistance.POTATO BREEDERS strive to develop new varieties with improved yield and quality. Important attributes could include reduced susceptibility to insects and diseases, improved nutritional value or increased tolerance to environmental stresses. The process is slowit usually takes eight to 12 years from the first cross to the release of a new cultivar. This long-term process fosters collaboration among breeders, growers, processors, researchers, EUGENIA BANKS,and extension personnel. The network assists in the potato specialist with the Ontariodevelopment of management guidelines, detects Potato Board problems and determines the predictability of performance of each new cultivar.Each step in the breeding of a new potato variety is critical for a successful commercial release. Parents are selected with known desirable attributes and crossed to produce true potato seed the first year. Seedling tubers are grown from the true seed the second year. The selection phase begins in year three when each seedling tuber is planted in the field asPeter Vander Zaag checking on tubers produced by potato a single hill. As the years progress, fewer and fewerplants grown from true potato seed. PHOTO: EUGENIA BANKSselections remain, and the weight of seed tubers per retained clones increases. Once there is enough seed,in several cultivars that originate from germplasm promising selections are planted in trials in growersprovided by the International Potato Center in Peru. fields. Very few selections make it this far. SelectionsUnfortunately, these cultivars are not adapted to for commercial release need to be established in tissuethe long days of the Canadian summer. The PSPG culture and any virus contamination dealt with beforegroup see a great benefit in incorporating late blight the cycles of multiplication can begin to produceresistance into varieties grown in Canada enough seed for commercial sale.3. Joyce has been crossing late-blight resistance In Ontario, we are fortunate to have Peter Vanderinto varieties for french fries. Vander Zaag has added Zaag, a potato breeder who is also a grower at Sunrisevarieties for chipping to the list, and the plan is to make Potato and a globally recognized potato scientist.the list longer. Vander Zaag has joined forces with Joyce and Robert4. New selections must be tested in growers fields in Coffin with Privar Farms Inc. at Trenton, Ont., Andredifferent provinces, and there are members from three Gagnon with Progest in Quebec, and Darin Gibsonprovinces. They plan to test internationally as well. from Gaia Consulting, in Manitoba, to form a workingGagnon has connections in Latin America, and Vander group named PSGP (standing for Privar Farms Inc.,Zaag in Asia.Sunrise Potato, Progest and Gaia Consulting). The collaboration is ongoing for five years now. In According to Vander Zaag, they decided to work2021, some selections from the initial crosses were together because: planted in an organic field where late blight developed 1. Each of them had a different end-use for theirlate this season. The results were encouraging with potatoes, so they were not in competition for markets. three clones having excellent resistance. Others were 2. Breeding for late blight resistance was asusceptible to various degrees. The clones will need to common goal to reduce fungicide use, environmentalbe re-tested to confirm the results. Vander Zaag says contamination, and yield loss. Vander Zaag hadPSGP looks forward to the day when they develop identified multiple-gene resistance to late blightpotato varieties resistant to late blight for Canada!40SPUDSMART.COM Fall 2021'