American Journal of Potato Research最新文献

The disease late blight is a threat to potato production worldwide, making genetic resistance an important target for breeding. The resistance gene RB/Rpi-blb1 is effective against most strains of the causal pathogen, Phytophthora infestans. Until now, potato breeders have utilized a Sequence Characterized Amplified Region (SCAR) marker to screen for RB. Our objective was to design and validate a Kompetitive Allele Specific PCR (KASP) marker, which has advantages for high-throughput screening. First, the accuracy of the SCAR marker was confirmed in two segregating tetraploid populations. Then, using whole genome sequencing data for two RB-positive segregants and a diverse set of 23 RB-negative varieties, a SNP in the 5’ untranslated (UTR) region was identified as unique to RB. The KASP marker based on this SNP, which had 100% accuracy in the cultivated diversity panel, was used to generate diploid breeding lines containing RB. The KASP marker is publicly available for others to utilize.

Potato virus Y is a devastating pathogen affecting several crops including potato. Upon recognition of PVY, plants carrying PVY-resistance genes reprogram their transcriptome to prevent viral multiplication and movement throughout the plant. However, it is often not clear what the significance of these changes is and which genes are essential for a successful resistance response. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that a putative VQ motif-containing gene, which was highly differentially expressed in response to the strain PVY^O in the N_y gene-carrying cultivar Premier Russet, plays a role in the defense response against PVY. For this, infection rates of three transgenic potato lines overexpressing VQ inoculated with three different strains of PVY (O, N-Wilga, NTN) were compared to those of Premier Russet control. Our results showed that there were no significant differences in foliar and tuber infection rates between VQ-overexpressing lines and Premier Russet control, suggesting that VQ alone is not essential in the plant response to PVY.

The Andean region of Ecuador is being impacted by climate change, and improved best management practices for agriculture are needed to increase yields and food security. We conducted a study comparing different nitrogen (N) rates to determine the optimum N application rate for potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) systems in this region. We examined five application rates of N: 0, 100, 200, 300, and 400 kg N ha^− 1. The results suggest that an N application rate of 300 kg N ha^− 1 increased productivity and net income by 87% and 146%, respectively, compared to no application of N. We transferred these improved practices to farmers, and all farms increased their yields and net economic returns. The average yields and net economic returns for these farmers increased by 50% and 64%, respectively. Additional N use efficiency (NUE) studies are needed to continue increasing yields and economic returns for farmers in the Andean region.

Plant preference in agricultural pests is a prerequisite for expansion onto cultivated crops, but there has been limited research on how an insect determines host plant suitability. We investigated Colorado potato beetle Leptinotarsa decemlineata (CPB) performance on various populations of the wild potato Solanum jamesii (jam), with which it has overlapping natural range in the southwest USA. Herbivory was measured in no-choice feeding assays in the greenhouse and common garden field plots in Wisconsin. The jam populations were categorized according to whether CPB had been observed to be present in the wild in germplasm collection records. Herbivory on all jam populations was very low compared to the tuberosum cultivar control. In the no-choice greenhouse assay, all jam were equally consumed by CPB. But in field plots where choice was allowed, CPB were significantly more attracted to jam populations on which CPB had been observed in the wild. Although documenting the presence of CPB on wild jam populations was non-systematic and qualitative in germplasm collecting expeditions over multiple years, that observation does appear to have some value in predicting which jam will be more attractive to CPB in Wisconsin field conditions.

Potatoes are the most highly consumed vegetable in the United States and are the primary source of antioxidants in the American diet. Therefore, technologies and growing methods that aim to enhance the nutritional quality of potatoes can have positive impacts on public health. Based on past success with other food crops, we hypothesized that inoculation with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) would increase both the yield and nutritional quality of potatoes. To test this hypothesis, we grew yellow fleshed (cv. Lehigh) and purple fleshed (cv. Adirondack Blue) potatoes in containers with several monospecific AMF inoculants comprised of Rhizophagus irregularis, Funneliformis mosseae, or Claroideoglumus etunicatum, and one indigenous mixed species population inoculant. Overall, we found that AMF inoculation increased potato tuber yield by up to 23%, antioxidant activity by up to 120%, ergothioneine concentration by up to 9X, and soluble sugar concentration by up to 46%, and that the extent of these increases varied by mycorrhizal species. Future research should examine the extent to which inoculation with the most beneficial AMF species reported here improves yield and nutritional quality in the field setting.

Potato production in the hilly and mountainous areas of Northwest China on small plots and sloping lands, does not allow large machines to enter the ground and to turn at the end of the field. Existing mechanized potato diggers usable on small plots of land require manual picking, which is very labor intensive. To address these issues, a remotely controlled, self-propelled potato combined harvester with manual sorting platform has been designed and a prototype built. The design and calculation of the main system of the prototype machine are presented in the paper. These include the structure and working parameters of the bionic excavating device, the potato-soil separating and lifting device, the double-channel sorting mechanism of potatoes and sundries, the hydraulic control of the jumbo bag loading and unloading mechanism, the crawler-type self-propelled chassis walking system, the transmission system and hydraulic control system, and the operating mechanism of the core components. Field experiments showed that the potato loss rate was 1.6%, the injury rate was 1.1%, the impurity rate was 2.3%, the skin broken rate was 1.8%, and the productivity was 0.1 to 0.13 hectares/hour. All the indexes of the field performance test meet the national and industrial standards, and the test results meet the design requirements for combined operations of excavating, separation, transportation, sorting, collecting, and unloading potatoes.

Abstract