Diplod Inbreds For Fixation, and Unreduced Gametes for Tetraploidy – A novel Fixation-Restitution Breeding method for potato

This project will impact the sustainability and resilience of the world’s 4th most important food crop by developing all of the componentsrequired for an innovative breeding system that can overcome limitations of the current breeding method. Predictable fixation of biotic andabiotic stress resistance, in combination with yield, nutritional value and quality, will facilitate SME breeding companies to develop highlyperforming potato varieties with a sustainability and resilience profile that is impossible to achieve using current methods. Climate changemay radically impact global potato production. High temperature, flooding, drought and salinity will impact yield. Climate change may alsoincrease biotic stress by conferring shorter life cycles and increased geographical range to pests and pathogens. Agronomy and pesticidescan repair the lack of resistance to abiotic and biotic stresses, but breeding will offer the crop an innate capacity to resist them, allowing anintegrated pest management to produce a high quality crop with lower inputs. Unfortunately, potato breeding is a slow and frustratingactivity. Tetraploidy and outbreeding hinder the fixation of genetic gains, making the accumulation of multiple beneficial trait alleles verydifficult, even over several cycles of selection. High soil temperature inhibits tuber formation; genes involved in heat tolerance have beenidentified, but are underused in varieties. Varieties with single resistance genes exist, but these offer stepping stones for evolution ofpathogenicity; pyramiding R genes greatly contributes to their durable deployment. Breeding high performing varieties combining all suchtraits is essential for resilience but difficult. Therefore, we propose a new breeding system that allows for a predictable accumulation andsubsequent fixation of biotic and abiotic resistances with yield and quality traits. By the end of this project we can deliver the components ofthis breeding system.