Broadening Genetic Diversity of the Japanese Potato Gene Pool

Abstract

Newly developed potato varieties in Japan have never replaced existing old varieties, indicating genetic poverty in our gene pool. To broaden the genetic diversity, Andean primitive cultivated potatoes (Andigena) were used to create parental clones. A total of 184 Andigena accessions and 10 tetraploid Solanum tarijense-Andigena hybrid clones were crossed with a breeding clone 10H17. From 6939 F1 hybrid clones, 287 were selected as long-day-adapted F1 clones. From progeny evaluation using these as pollen parents crossed with Atlantic, 95 male-fertile and high-yielding F1 clones were selected (PGEL clones). The genetic relationship was evaluated using 17,947 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers, which disclosed their distinctiveness, with larger mean Euclidean distances between PGEL clones and Japanese, foreign, or all tetraploid varieties (48.0, 49.9 or 49.4, respectively) than between Japanese and foreign varieties (47.2). Thus, these PGEL clones can be used to expand genetic diversity in Japanese potato breeding populations.