Improved potato cultivation on northern latitudes by early tuberization and maturation

Potato is one of the most important food crops globally and has its origins in the Andes of South America. From its origin, potato has developed a strategy of producing tubers under short day and cool temperature conditions. This caused problems when potato was introduced in Europe since the genotypes cultivated were prone to develop tubers in the autumn and did not reach maturity during the growing season.

Subsequently, specific genotypes have been selected that initiate tuberization under the long day conditions of northern Europe. In recent research, several genes and allelic variants have been identified that could be potential breeding targets for further adaptation to northern conditions of long days and short season.

To achieve the aim, a first objective in the project is to identify gene candidates of importance in the tuberigen activation network. Secondly, gene editing is used on known genes and putative genes of importance identified in the project to produce new alleles for early tuberization and maturation. The newly developed genotypes will then be grown under controlled conditions to verify the influence of new genetic variation on tuberization and tuber development.